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Cool Google Android Apps For Sharing Photos, Videos, Audio

Kevin Eklund — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:58:18 +0000

The latest update release from Google Android (1.5 a.k.a. Cupcake) included, among many other things, video recording capabilities. Google Android video apps are still emerging in the Android Market but there’s a handful of free ones that are very well developed. I’ve sifted through all the free Google Android video player apps and hundreds of Android photo apps, as well as Android audio applications to come up with a list of some of my favorite Google Android multimedia applications. This review excludes any previously examined Google Android apps so you might want to check out my past reviews of Google Android applications which includes GPS apps, a selection of some of the most expensive Android apps from the Google Android Market, the some of the most clever Android apps, productivity focused Android apps, several future Android applications, and a my first impressions of the T-Mobile G1 which includes a list of the best free Android apps.

Qik - Allows you to capture and stream live video to your own channel at Qik and share it with your friends. These videos are saved to your Qik account and Android phone for later playback. From there you can easily upload and share them on popular social media and video sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s also possible to record videos privately and not share them with everyone on the Qik website. Overall, I found the Qik Android application to work quite well on my T-Mobile G1. There was a slight delay in the video feed from my phone to the Qik website but that’s to be expected. Surprisingly the time delay was on the order of about 10 seconds! My only complaints regarding the Qik application is that the microphone volume stinks. I was very close to the mic when I recorded the video displayed below and yet you can barely hear what I’m saying even with volume set at maximum. The video quality could definitely use some improvements but that’s not Qik’s fault; the camera is the G1’s Achilles heel.

vRecorder - A voice recorder that offers the ability to auto record phone calls. This is one of the Android apps I’ve been waiting for. It’s particularly useful when you’re taking conference calls and if you need to refer back to your notes at a later time. The design needs some work but the app ultimately gets the job done by recording phone conversations up to 10 minutes in length. You can set a playback delay timer, auto messages, and auto record your incoming or outgoing calls if you want. The audio recording quality is decent but it can be much improved by simply using the speaker phone while talking with someone. Besides improving its looks, I’d like to see the developer add the ability to attach recordings to emails for easy sharing and archival purposes.

StumbleUpon Video - From the highly popular social media sharing site StumbleUpon, this Google Android video application permits you to stumble through the StumbleUpon’s video archives that are chocked full of great video entertainment. If you’ve got a few minutes to kill, it’s great for a good laugh. Here’s a few fun videos I found while stumbling the humor category via StumbleUpon video app.

PicSay - A great free image annotation and photo editing/sharing application that’s very simple and easy to use. All you have to do is select the objects you want to incorporate into the photo and drag them into position. You can further enhance your images by adding thought balloons, titles, text, props, altering color schemes and applying effects. The pro version of PicSay includes a plethora of additional features such as geotagging, color correction, picture cutouts, and many more effects and transforms to alter the look and feel of your photos.

PhotoFlux - A GPS based image viewer that pulls photos from Flickr that were taken within the nearby area of interest. The app is integrated with Google Maps so you can easily select and find the location of interest. You can zoom in and out of the map, browse images, and enlarge the photos to find out who the author is, the name of the image, and other relevant information.

Tickr - This is one of my favorite Google Android photo applications. You simply enter a search term and it pulls related photos from Flickr and displays them in a slow, vertical rolling feed that fits to the width of your T-Mobile G1 screen. It’s the perfect way to view photos as you don’t have to zoom in to view them. The photos load in queue so there’s very little to no waiting time for them to display as your scrolling through them.

PicPush - This handy dandy Google Android application enables you to automatically push photos to several popular photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Picasa, Gallery, Shutterfly, and PhotoBucket. This is especially helpful when managing the storage space on your Android phone. My T-Mobile G1 has a 8GB flash card but it fills up pretty quickly nowadays with the new video capabilities and hundreds of photos I have stored away. The video below illustrates how the early version of PicPush operates but the new version with a more attractive user interface design should be deployed any day now.

A Online Radio - This is another Android app I’ve been waiting for. You can listen to streaming music via online radio channels but unfortunately, they don’t include local radio stations. In order to hear local radio stations, you need to install the app and navigate your Android browser to TheStreamCenter.com/pda. From there you can select your state and the radio station of your choice. The only caveat for this is that the app will only load MP3 based channels and is unable to play those that utilize WMP. It would be great if the developer of this Android app could find a workaround to load WMP channels.

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Ultimate Guide For Kicking Ass In Mafia Wars

Kevin Eklund — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:36:27 +0000

Given that Mafia Wars is such a popular Facebook app game, I thought it only made sense to create a Mafia Wars guide. I’ve only recently started playing but I’ve successfully grown my mafia family to over 250 in just a few days. Mafia Wars is a highly addictive Facebook game but it’s also a great place to meet and add Facebook friends too. Everyone I’ve met in Mafia Wars has not only been friendly but supportive and ready to go to war in a moments notice for his/her own Mafia Wars family. Through the help of some Mafia Wars members, I’ve come up with some great Mafia Wars tips on how to play the game:

Bank the money - Protect your money by depositing it into the bank. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing it in fights or getting robbed.

Gifting to family members - You’re only as strong as your family and therefore gifting to weak members is beneficial to everyone. Make sure each one of your Mafia Wars family members has 1) a vehicle, 2) weapons, and 3) armor.

Protect your own - When the call for help goes out, you should join the fight to protect family members. That is, unless the opponent is too strong. In that case, bitch slap/sucker punch and make a run for it!

Put in work and buy properties - Work your butt off doing jobs to earn money and complete the various levels. As your Mafia grows, keep buying up Mafia Mike’s as it’s the best return on your money and such property can’t be stolen.

Choose your weapons wisely - Don’t waste your points or money obtaining weapons that have weak attack points. When you join a fight, the weapons with the highest attack points are used first so it’s important you have a lethally strong arsenal. Also, don’t waste your money buying weapons that you cannot use for gifting to others.

Stay energized - If you want more energy, don’t waste your Godfather points to increase it. Instead, use your Godfacther points to buy four upgrade points. It will cost you 14 Godfather points to do so, but it will help you in the long run. As your energy capacity grows, you’ll eventually be able to pass each level much quicker and with a surplus of energy points.

2X Level Rule - Your attack and defense points in Mafia Wars should be very strong and should scale according to your level. As a rule of thumb many Mafia Wars players like to have their attack and defense points at twice that of the level they are currently playing. Thus if your on Mafia Wars level two, your attack points shoud be at four and your defense points should be just as high.

Fighting loading problems - Sometimes your screen will freeze and refreshing doesn’t help. In that case, just go to your updates and choose a person in your Mafia Wars family to fight. It’ll say something like you can’t fight someone in your own Mafia Wars members but if you look to the right you’ll see the regular fight screen.

Reconsider Brag Gifting - You don’t need to announce that you’ve been gifting. In fact many Mafia Wars players find it quite annoying to see your gifts filling up their news feeds.

Hitlist yourself - Select a lower Mafia Wars level in your profile such as a street thug and ask someone to add you to the Mafia Wars hitlist. They just need to go into my mafia, select your profile, and add you to the hitlist. If you want to guarantee that you get experience and you don’t get snuffed-out, ask some lower level Mafia Wars players to attack you. In return you could provide a service for them such as beating up a local Mafia Wars bully.

Don’t waste energy packs - When you’re within approximately two hundred points of the next level, refrain from using an energy pack as you’ll be instantly re-energized upon reaching that next level.

Visit Cuba - Once you reach Mafia Wars level 35 you should take the trip to Cuba to obtain more powerful weapons and gain experience.

Become a fan of Stone Cold Pimps - You need to get “pimped” by this fan page to instantly add 200+ mafia members to your mafia family. After getting pimped, return the favor by inviting your friends to join the Stone Cold Pimps fan page.

Contribute your knowledge - If you have any Mafia Wars tips or strategies, send them to me and I’ll add them to the official Mafia Wars list. If your Mafia Wars tip is included in the list, we’ll give you credit by adding a link to your name next to the tip to help you grow your Mafia Wars family!

Befriend Properly - Add me on Facebook and others so we can join your Mafia Wars family. When you request the add, include the message “Mafia Wars” so we know what the Facebook add is for.

Share this Mafia Wars guide <=== Click this link to share our Mafia Wars guide with your family and friends on Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, and Twitter. Doing so helps us provide more help for you. The guide is a great tool for teaching your family and friends how to play Mafia Wars so when they’re ready to join your Mafia Wars family they’ll be well educated and ready to fight for you!

Top 10 Free Google Android Apps With GPS For Your T-Mobile G1

Kevin Eklund — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:37:36 +0000

In addition to Google Maps, are plenty of other great location-based GPS (Global Positioning System) driven Google Android apps available for free download in the Android Market. GPS can be very helpful when you’re needing directions, trying to find the closest restaurant nearby, or simply wanting to display your location to friends on some of the popular mobile social networks. Nowadays Android apps that utilize GPS can even help you find your T-Mobile G1 if it’s ever lost or stolen. Below are some of the best free location based Google Android applications (listed in no particular order) that integrate GPS.

1. Loopt - One of the most popular mobile social networking providers available. The Loopt Android app lets you see where you and your friends are located and display status updates of what you’re all doing. Loopt makes it easy to connect while on the go and easily share comments, photos, and cool places to visit.

2. Glympse - This Google Android application lets you share your location and movements in real-time with your family, friends, and coworkers. Instead of automatically updating your location, Glympse gives you greater control by allowing you to manually publish such information and a brief message for a specified amount of time. When you’re ready to send out a “Glympse”, you simply select recipients from you contacts list, select the time frame for which they will be able to track your location/movements, and choose the method of contacting them (i.e. SMS message or email). The recipient will then receive a link to view your location, message, and real time movement on a map. Check out the video below to hear more about Glympse.

4. Locale - Allows you to preset your phone’s settings according to conditions, your location, and the time of day. This can be particularly helpful to prevent your ringer from going off during important meetings, events, or when you’re at a specified location. Hence, you’ll never have to worry about forgetting to turn off your ringer again; you simply set it and you’re done. The Locale SMS Plug-in Android app works directly with the Locale app to automatically send SMS messages based on the time and your location. There’s also a Locale Twitter Plug-in that automatically sends out tweets based on your location and the time of day. Both plugins permit you to easily and automatically update your family, friends, Twitter followers, and coworkers about where and what you’re up to.

5. Droid Tracker - Lets you share your location via SMS messages, Twitter (via Twidroid app), and email. Friends and family members can easily find you by simply sending an SMS message with a passcode to your phone which triggers a response to shoot them back your location. This can be particularly helpful if your T-Mobile G1 is ever lost of stolen. Interestingly, you can also set the app to take a picture and upload it to your Picasa album when sending the location to the recipient.

6. Tweetabouts - This Google Android application automatically updates the location on your Twitter profile via GPS. You can configure the radius and duration settings to tweet your exact location or an approximation of where you are.

7. Places Directory - An Android app that helps you find nearby businesses such as restaurants, theaters, and stores. It indicates the distance and direction to the place of interest as well as providing photos, ratings, and a phone number.

8. My Tracks - A Google android app that records your movements via GPS and tracks them on a map to include such statistics as time, distance, speed, and elevation. This Android app can be useful for many types of activities such as running, cycling, and hiking. The app also allows you to share your tracks, add them to Google Spreadsheets, see them on Google My Maps, as well as share them using Twidroid. Check out the My Tracks video tutorial below for more information about this Android app.

9. Speed Proof - A simple Android app that records your location and speed for later retrieval.

10. SIM Checker - Permits you to enter a phone number and email address to receive an alert if your phone is ever lost or stolen. If a different SIM card is added to your stolen Android phone, you’ll be sent the phone’s location.

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10 Reasons Why You Should Use Google Apps For Your Website’s Domain

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:33:10 +0000

When you purchase a domain (e.g. yourwebsite.com) for your website from any of the domain registrars such as GoDaddy, you normally get a single free email account that includes limited storage space. Instead of upgrading to a paid email account, why not use a free solution like Google Apps? Google Apps is a software-as-a-service solution for business email as well as for sharing information between users and groups. In addition to using it for your business, many personal website owners and bloggers use Google Apps because of the following:

1. Gmail - It’s by far the best web based email solution available today and comes with the following features/services all for free:

Excellent spam protection
7GB of storage space per user
Best email search
Email filters
Gmail labs offers great customization features and new services
Task lists
Email labeling permits you to tag incoming emails with a specific label
Built-in GTalk chat with audio and video
Google Docs integration
Online and offline email access
Email forwarding and POP/IMAP access for other email clients
Sync with your mobile phone (Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry)
Notifications

2. Google Calendar - A great web based calendar that includes the following features:

Sharing calendars with friends with auto updating
Tasks lists
Sync with Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCal, Mozilla Sunbird, mobile devices (G1, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry
Online and offline access of your calendar
Notifications

3. Google Documents - Permits you to access documents online and comes with these great features:

Share documents online with friends publicly or in private
Edit documents
Add comments to documents
Collaborate with others to edit/create documents

4. Google Contacts - A very nice and easy to use contact manager

Sync with your mobile device
Import/export contacts
Contact groups
Print your contacts
Contact suggestions based on who you email most frequently
Search contacts

5. It’s totally free! - It doesn’t cost you anything unless you exceed the allotted storage space of 7 GB.

6. Create up to 200 user accounts

7. Create and manage groups - Permits you to create an email distribution list for which you can email and share docs with with contacts.

8. Easily adjust domain settings - Allows you to create domain aliases, email aliases, and customize the look and feel of Google Apps services by changing colors and replacing the Google logo with your own website logo or brand.

9. Free support - The Google Apps For Admins Help Forum is a great resource for finding solutions to common problems and calling on other members to help you.

10. 3rd party vendor integration - The Google Solutions Marketplace permits to extend Google Apps to integrate with other popular services, resources, and tools.

Check out Google’s instructions for setting up Google Apps on your own domain or watch the step by step video tutorials below. If you run into problems, you can find help in the Google Apps forum. If you don’t have time to set it up yourself or you don’t know where to begin, we can install Google Apps for you for a mere $10. Just shoot us an email and we’ll have Google Apps up and running on your blog or website’s domain in no time.

Matt Mullenweg And Automattic’s Double Standard For WordPress Theme And Plugin Developers?

Kevin Eklund — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:41:26 +0000

I believe it’s time for Matt Mullenweg to seriously reconsider the restrictive, unsuccessful business models (donations, paid support) he currently requires developers adhere to in order to have their plugins and themes hosted at WordPress.org. Theme and plugin developers have helped make WordPress the champion blogging platform that it is today without receiving a single dime of the $29.5 million in funding that Automattic raised last year. Both Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic benefit financially from the hard work of plugin developers and theme designers. Yet it’s somehow justified in Matt’s mind that it’s not okay for plugin developers and theme designers to directly receive financial compensation for their contributions to WordPress.

Why Doesn’t Automattic Have To Obey The Rules?
There are several instances where Matt’s own company Automattic appears to contradict Matt’s rules for plugin developers. For instance, did you know that the Poll Daddy plugin is hosted in the official WP plugin repository even though they charge for a premium version of Poll Daddy? Perhaps you knew that Automattic charges for commercial licenses of the Akismet plugin which can be found in the official WP plugin repository too? Either I’m misunderstanding it, or it’s indeed possible, as demonstrated by Automattic, to host your free plugin at WordPress.org and also sell keys/licenses for plugins as “services” whether they are GPL compliant or not, or Matt is promoting a double standard here.

Why Matt Doesn’t Want To Clarify The WordPress GPL
Despite all my research, I’m beginning to think that Matt Mullenweg either doesn’t fully understand the meaning of GPL or purposefully doesn’t elaborate on the specifics of it to prevent developers from knowing exactly where the lines are drawn. It would be super easy for him to post at WordPress.org a list of things you can and can’t do with your premium plugins/themes according to the WordPress GPL and what business models are GPL compliant. Why have you not done this Matt? Please tell me I’m wrong about your understanding of the GPL and your intentions. It’s probably no mistake that Matt doesn’t want to acknowledge such issues. For it he did, he would have to acknowledge the fact that Automattic, a commercial entity that owns WordPress, exploits the GPL to promote it’s distribution, uses plugin and theme developers work to build upon WordPress, and then uses the GPL as a barrier to prevent anyone except Automattic from benefiting financially from the work. Regardless of Matt’s intentions, if he doesn’t start embracing plugin and theme developers to find an alternate business model to support them, at some point developers are either going to move on to another platform that does or simply create their own plugin/theme repository.

Developers Should Use Automattic’s Tactics
My current understanding of what is acceptable is that you can develop non-GPL premium themes and premium plugins and sell them but not on WordPress.org. If you want to get your plugins or themes into the official WP repository, you’re going to have to offer a free version and make sure it’s GPL compliant before it (free version only) will be hosted at WordPress.org. If your plugin or theme depends on WordPress code source to operate (which most do) then according to the GPL, customers who buy your premium themes and plugins have the right to distribute them freely. That stipulation by itself acts as a strong deterrent for selling premium themes and plugins and it’s probably why Matt tends to promote a service based model rather than selling the software outright. One solution to this problem is to require a unique encryption or API key (like Akismet uses) in order for your theme or plugin to work correctly which should help prevent people from pirating your work and distributing it freely.

Failure Of Donations, Paid Support-only Business Models
As I pointed out previously, the current WordPress donation based model that’s allowed by Matt and utilized by so many WP plugin developers doesn’t work. Moreover, freely available plugins frequently become a burden for their developer as they require lots of time to maintain and support. As a result, plugins either die off or they’re reassigned to become someone else’s problem.

Matt has been adamant about banishing theme designers from the official WordPress theme repository if they sell premium themes in a way that violates the GPL. On December 10th, 2008 he oversaw the removal of approximately 200 themes from the official WordPress theme repository because he said they did exactly that. He is also opposed to generating revenue from the development of WordPress plugins and themes unless the developer uses the broken donation model or a paid support-only business model to do so. The ugly fact is that, by itself, paid support for themes and plugins isn’t a viable business model either. Most people shouldn’t need support for a well designed plugin or theme. Moreover, if a customer can find a cheaper support rate elsewhere why would they pay the author to provide them with support? The key to this puzzle may lie in the definition of what support and services are. That is, does requiring the customer to buy an API key in order for the plugin to work constitute support?

Brian Gardner himself may be able to provide some insight as to the challenges of a paid support-only model. His Revolution themes were initially proprietary prior to the creation of his Revolution2 brand whereby he announced that they would become open source, GPL compliant, and he would adopt the paid support-only model. Brian received a lot of media coverage with this announcement and Matt Mullenweg rewarded his decision by giving Brian an exclusive opportunity to display his Revolution2 banner ad in the official WordPress theme repository.

As far as I know Brian’s Revolution2 brand no longer exists and while his new StudioPress premium themes brand is GPL-ish, his company no longer depends solely on a support-only business model to generate revenue. Currently, you must pay to obtain a StudioPress theme and you must pay to receive support for it as well. I’m not at all knocking Brian’s decisions; I applaud him for doing this as it’s a smart business move that not only benefits him and his staff but the WordPress community as a whole. Getting paid to deliver excellent themes that enhance the overall experience and public image of WordPress is a good thing. Support and great looking, compliant themes require a lot of development time and that’s why you don’t see the same quality of work reflected in the free themes that reside in the repository.

A Better Solution For Theme And Plugin Devlopers
It seems that the best solution for most plugin and theme developers would be for Matt Mullenweg to create a premium plugin marketplace and a premium themes marketplace. He indeed appeared to be interested in establishing a WordPress.com premium themes marketplace in which Automattic would share 50% of the revenue with the theme designers but that idea for some unknown reason never gained any real traction. Perhaps the theme designers realized they could sell their themes themselves and keep 100% of the profits? Regardless, creating such a premium themes/plugin marketplace would put an end to much of the controversy that surrounds this issue. Then it just becomes a matter what level of control WordPress wants to assert, if any, with respect to the licensing and pricing of such premium plugins and themes. One of the most interesting solutions discussed in our previous article was an app store-like model where the cost for any given plugin was kept at a minimum (e.g. $1 per download). Such low prices would offer less incentive for piracy, it would keep costs low for WP bloggers, and it would enable developers to provide better support as well as afford them the opportunity to create new innovative WP plugins.

How WordPress Benefits From A Premium Marketplace
I understand many in the WP community fear that such a premium repository would destroy WordPress, but the fact remains that premium themes and premium plugins already exist. It’s actually in WP’s best interest to embrace such premium themes and plugins. Doing so may allow them to maintain some level of quality control and protect WP’s public image. Currently there’s no assurance to a customer that he/she is getting a quality product when they purchase a premium theme or plugin nor is there any reassurance that may be compatible with WP. It’s not at all unheard of for a new WordPress user to be duped into purchasing some garbage plugin or theme that’s not hosted at WordPress and completely abandon WP for a competing CMS or blogging platform (Concrete5, TypePad, MovableType). It’s especially tempting for the user to do something like that if 1) that competitor can ensure some type of community based quality control for premium themes/plugins, 2) offer a centralized location where all premium plugins and themes are conveniently hosted, 3) provide a better user experience, and 4) offer better looking free themes.

Free Plugins And Themes Will Continue To Thrive
I’m confident that implementing a premium marketplace would not eliminate the free themes and plugins repository as there are plenty of advantages to offering free versions. The developer could employ any of the following strategies below to help him cover his support and maintenance costs while still offering a free plugin or theme to all WordPress users.

Trial versions - Lets the user test the plugin/theme for free over a certain time period (i.e. 30-day free trial).
Paid upgrades - The user gets the free version which doesn’t include features offer in the premium version
Paid support - Developer only gets paid when the user requires support
Paid commercial licenses - Allows full access to the theme or plugin for personal use, but businesses must pay a licensing fee
Advertisements - Includes permanent ad/link displayed in the plugin or theme
Donations - While not very successful as a sole business model, it’s still an option and could be used in combination with strategies outlined above

Matt Admits Developers Driving Force Behind WordPress
There’s plenty of room for the negotiation of a premium marketplace at WordPress.org. By ignoring the discussion and not engaging the developer community to help them maintain and support their efforts, however, Matt is not sticking to his own mantra of openness and community. Matt may have founded WordPress, and we are all very very grateful that he did, but the plugin and theme developer community is now the primary driving force behind WP. Matt himself pointed out this fact in a recent episode of Techzilla (see video below @ 08:18).

Why Developers Shouldn’t Submit Work To WordPress

As Matt explained in the video, plugins are regularly integrated into the core functionality of WordPress and they now constitute nearly all of the development for recent and future versions of WP. But what becomes of the developer whose plugin is consumed by a new version of WP? Any traffic or donations his plugin may have generated while hosted at the WordPress plugin repository are now gone. And while donations are clearly not a sustainable business model, that developer may have depended on the paid support and/or the WP related work that originated from his plugin that was hosted in the WordPress repository. Incredibly, the current system that integrates popular plugins into new versions of WordPress eliminates the only revenue models (i.e. donations, paid support) that Matt permits developers to utilize in order to have their plugins hosted at WP. In the end, developers are better off not submitting their themes and plugins for inclusion into the WP repository and hosting them elsewhere.

WordPress Plugin Developers In Dire Need Of A Sustainable Business Model

Kevin Eklund — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:06:06 +0000

Plugin developers are the heart and soul of WordPress. WordPress plugin developers not only extend the core functionality of WP but they drive innovation for the popular blogging platform. Compared to other blogging platforms, WordPress arguably possesses the strongest and most generous community of all. Despite this however, WP plugin developers receive very little compensation for their efforts to supply the WP plugin repository with quality free plugins. Many developers reach a point at which they are simply unable to continue long-term support their plugins. This is largely due to the maintenance and support costs incurred for their plugins which far exceed the revenue generated by the donation based business model which most plugin developers utilize.

Donations Alone Aren’t Sustainable
WordPress has always pushed to make plugins and themes hosted at WordPress.org freely available under a General Public License (GPL). This has helped distinguish WordPress from some other blogging platforms and has enabled WordPress to become the most popular blogging platform available today. This business model obviously works very well for WordPress but it does very little for WordPress plugin developers. That is, they put in great amount of time, effort, and money into creating and supporting these plugins but the benefits for doing so pale in comparison as they rarely receive donations for their work.

Last year I asked both Alex King and Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan if they knew the percentage of people that contributed a donation after downloading a plugin. Alex replied to my email and said, “I’d say maybe .5%? Maybe lower…” whereas Mr. Chan explained that, “I would say less than 1% based on my 4 years of doing plugin”. Altogether both plugin creators currently have a combined total of 43 plugins (Alex King: 26, Lester Chan: 17) available for free download at the official WordPress plugin repository. Upon answering the same question, Donncha O Caoimh, of the popularly downloaded WP Super Cache plugin, replied, “I don’t have an exact figure but it’s probably far less than 1%”, “I’d be rather happy if each of them even donated a dollar!”. Alex Rabe, author of the heavily used NextGEN Gallery plugin, supplied me with some donation statistics saying, “Less than 1 percent for NextGEN Gallery, 800,000 downloads and approx. 200 donations”. That actually works out to be a donation rate of 0.025%! That’s completely ridiculous! Providing quality support for these plugins is practically a full time job for these guys and donations clearly don’t cover the costs. Because of this, many plugin developers aren’t able to provide free long-term support/maintenance for their plugin and either 1) compatibility falls behind, 2) another developer is needed to assume responsibility to support/maintain the plugin, or 3) the plugin is abandoned altogether.

In a recent discussion with Joost de Valk, I expressed my concern about the challenges that face WordPress plugin developers and the need for a viable, rewarding business model to ensure continued quality plugin development and support. Joost currently provides free support for his 26 plugins at WordPress.org, works full time at Orange Valley, blogs about WordPress SEO tips at Yoast.com, does freelance WP plugin development and web marketing work, and somehow finds time to attend WordPress SEO speaking engagements. Joost proudly displays donation requests on his site in an attempt to cover his costs for maintaining and supporting his plugins but he too knows that donations are not a sustainable long-term business model for WordPress plugin developers. With less than 0.1% of WP users submitting donations after downloading one of his plugins and support and maintenance requiring so much of his time, he’s seriously considering the alternatives:

“Even with my current workload it’s never less than 10 and usually more like 20 hours a week spent on support and upgrades etc…”, “It’s just not sustainable like this.”

Alternative Business Models For WP Plugin Developers
1. Premium Plugins - Paid plugins indeed offer a sustainable alternative for developers but the WordPress regulations don’t allow for paid plugins to be hosted at WordPress.org. Thus there’s greater challenges and expenses involved with this business model to effectively increase awareness of a plugin throughout the WP community. Support for paid plugins is usually very good as most developers know that plugin sales depend on customer satisfaction. Hence, providing poorly supported plugins will eventually damage the developer’s reputation and hinder the success of the plugin.

2. Freemium Plugins - This business model for WP plugins includes offering a free basic version of the plugin at WordPress.org and selling upgrades to the plugin elsewhere (i.e. the developer’s website). The quality and promptness of free support for the basic plugin may vary quite a bit across plugins and developers however. The WP e-Commerce plugin owners have been utilizing this business model for several years.

3. Paid Support - Like the freemium business model this strategy allows for the plugin to be included at the WordPress plugin repository. Support, however, is provided by the developer on a per cost basis and may include such things as theme compatibility issues or paid installation. The potential income that could be obtained by the developer may not rival that of the other two business models though as I could see many customers outsourcing support needs in an attempt to reduce expenses. For example, if the plugin’s creator is charging $100 for specific support request and another individual says they’ll provide support for only $50, it’s a no-brainer that the developer is going to lose-out many times. I would hope that the plugin’s author would be selected to complete the support request as I believe that no one should be able to provide better support than the plugin’s creator but unfortuantely not everyone sees it that way.

4. Ad Supported - This business model depends on the revenue generated by advertisements or sales of other products. I’m guessing that this would be just as unsuccessful as donations but I don’t have any real numbers to back this up. I haven’t personally seen any advertisements embedded into a plugin’s settings page but I have observed plugins that display such things as their creator’s Amazon Wishlists (i.e. Google XML Sitemap plugin). Again, I’m guessing that traditional CPC advertisements wouldn’t fair well with the WP community and I imagine it would just be a matter of time before someone posted a revised version that didn’t include the ads. Moreover, the number of impressions, or click-throughs for a plugin’s settings page is very low. Therefore, I submit to you that advertisements alone are not a viable solution either as the potential for income is very small.

5. A Combination Model - This would entail using any combination of the models described above. For instance, maybe instead of selling the plugin outright, the developer draws on all the other plugin business models for sustainability (i.e. donations + ads + paid support + paid upgrades).

Plugin Developers Aren’t Alone
The struggle to find an acceptable and sustainable business model for WordPress developers is nothing new. Theme designers have struggled with this issue for many years. Brian Gardner has been a pioneer in WordPress theme development by demonstrating a sustainable premium themes business model as well as venturing out to incorporate a GPL based paid support business model for his WordPress themes as well. Joost de Valk recently joined forces with Brian through a partnership to improve the SEO of Brian’s StudioPress themes. This too is nothing new for plugin developers as, unlike successful WP theme developers, many must do consultation work and/or hold full time non-plugin development jobs.

Why Premium Plugins Make Sense
While many WordPress fans believe that all plugins should be free, it’s actually in the best interest of the developers and the WP community to adopt a business model that helps improve upon the quality and life of WordPress plugins. The premium themes business model worked because the quality of free themes was much less than that of the premium themes. By creating better quality themes that were more attractive, WordPress in turn became more attractive to people as a blogging platform. The same may be said for premium plugins in that support for a free plugins cannot rival the level of support one could provide if he/she was paid to do so.

Why WordPress Should Sell Premium Plugins
It’s actually quite surprising to me in this age of thriving application platforms (i.e. iPhone App Store, Android Marketplace) that WordPress hasn’t offered a similar platform that gives back to its developers. Let’s consider for a moment if every plugin in the official WordPress repository required a mandatory donation of a mere $1 to download and complete the installation. Most WordPress bloggers don’t use that many plugins so the overall expense for them would probably be less than $20 in total. That’s very inexpensive for the blog owner, yet it could do wonders for the developer (especially in this economy) and give WordPress a nice development boost as well. Developers would not only be able to finally afford to adequately support and maintain their plugins but they could then refocus their attention to further enriching their plugins. Perhaps more importantly they would have more time to explore other plugin development ideas which would ultimately benefit the community and drive innovation for WordPress.

Final Thoughts

I believe many developers that employ the freemium or premium plugin business model have and will find success but I’m not as confident about a business model that depends solely on paid support for sustainability. One thing is for certain however; donations alone do not cover the plugin developer’s costs to maintain and support his/her plugins in the long run. It is my hope that by posting this article you will engage in this discussion to stimulate ideas to ensure that great plugin developers like Alex King, Donncha O Caoimh, Alex Rabe, Lester Chan, and Joost de Valk will continue to develop awesome plugins for the WordPress community. Please take a minute to let us know what your thoughts are on this important issue by leaving your comments below. If you know of anyone that may be interested in this discussion, please invite them to join the conversation by sharing this article with them using any of the services listed below. Thank you.

Update: Michael Torbert, author of the All in One SEO Pack plugin, emailed me saying “The approximate percentage of users who donate is .013%. This includes donations ranging from a few cents to tens of dollars, with a mean donation of $11″.

Google App Engine For Java - Microblogging Case Study

Kevin Eklund — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:41:06 +0000

This is a guest post by Robert Miller. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out our guest author guidelines.

On April 7th, Google announced an early look at Google App Engine for Java and I received access to it shortly thereafter. I was able to complete their example application and deploy it to Google servers with very little struggle. I found the Google App Engine for Java to be very entrepreneurial because it offers a simple development and deployment process along with really cheap, scalable hosting. The following are notes and a case study of my experience in developing a new microblogging service using Google App Engine for Java.

Ease of Development with the Eclipse Plugin
Google App Engine for Java includes an Eclipse plugin that makes it easy to develop and deploy a Java web application onto Google’s servers. The Eclipse plugin creates a web application project that includes all of the necessary JAR and configuration files. Further, the Eclipse plugin provides the ability to test your application on your local machine because it can start a local database and web server that emulates Google App Engine’s production environment. What’s more, the Eclipse plugin provides one-click deployment to Google App Engine’s servers. There is an online administrative tool that works in concert with the plugin to provide version management for database changes.

Really Cheap, Scalable Hosting
Last fall, I stated that one of Java’s biggest long-term problems was that there was not any really cheap, scalable hosting solutions and that Google App Engine should add Java to their list of support languages. I believe that Google App Engine can spark a resurgence in entrepreneurs choosing Java over Ruby now that Google has added Java support. Google App Engine for Java is free to use until an application exceeds the following daily usage: 46 hours of CPU time per day (i.e., processing time not idle time), 10 gigabytes of data transferred in and out, 1 gigabyte of stored data (i.e., data accumulates over time), and 2,000 e-mails. It should be noted that the free daily quotas are scheduled to be reduced: CPU time down to 6.5 hours and the data transferred down to 1 gigabyte.

Hosting environment - Google App Engine for Java meets or exceeds all of my expectations for a Java web application hosting environment because it decreases time to market, requires little or no start up costs, and supports long-term scalability and growth. Time to market benefits are derived from actions that do not need to be taken: deployment script configuration, database clustering, and web server clustering. Further, time to market is supported by built-in unit testing and easy to follow code conventions. The start up costs for licensing and hosting are zero so the only cost is time spent programming. What’s more, long-term scalability and growth can be achieved headache-free (in theory) because App Engine for Java takes responsibility for providing additional resources (i.e., servers and database storage) as they are needed.

Support for Java

Shaking off the rust - Developing and launching a new service using Google App Engine for Java meant shaking off my Java programming rust because I had not programmed Java in almost three years. The transition back into Java was helped by my attendance of JavaOne in 2006 because a lot of what I learned then is now being used in Google App Engine for Java (e.g., JDO, annotations). In addition, I have recently done some programming in Ruby on Rails so my programming acumen has not diminished entirely. In shaking off the rust, I found the Google App Engine documentation sufficient for basic tasks and that the Google App Engine Developer group was required for complex tasks.

Web application support - Google App Engine for Java supports standard Java web application development and deployment including Servlets, Filters, JSPs, and JSTL. I was unable to get JSTL working but I am assuming that it was a personal problem. Some people have pointed out that Google App Engine for Java does not support the full Java specification and the frameworks built on top of it including JDBC, JSF, Struts 2, RMI, and JAX-RPC. This can be a serious problem for porting existing applications over to App Engine for Java but should not be a big deal for new applications that can suffice with basic Servlet and JSP programming. Further, the compatibility issues are well documented so it should be easy to architect an application that can successfully run on App Engine for Java. For me, it is worth trading the full set of Java features for an easy to manage, scalable hosting environment.

Other Notes -

Google App Engine allows each developer account to create up to 10 applications. If you plan to use Google Accounts to authenticate users then choose your application name carefully because I could not edit my application name (for display on the user login page) after I created my app.
By default, an application is deployed with a domain of something.appspot.com. A free Google Apps account is required to associate your custom domain to your application.
Google App Engine for Java administration site includes the ability to run queries, delete data, manages versions of your application, and view usage/billing statistics.
You can give other developers access to your Google App Engine for Java administration site.

Case Study - New Microblogging Service
I created a new microblogging service http://m.TwoKnobbyTires.com that was programmed for and deployed on Google App Engine for Java. m.TwoKnobbyTires.com’s functionality is part microblog (e.g., Twitter) and part discussion forum. The simplistic look and feel is modeled after Craigslist and designed to be usable from all mobile devices. Unfortunately, Google Accounts for authentication does not work on all mobile devices. The service facilitates real-time niche discussions including:

An outdoor forum for outdoor enthusiasts to discuss hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, etc.
A pro sports forum for fans to debate their city’s NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL teams
A college sports forum for fans to debate college football and basketball

The App Engine features utilized include Google Accounts for authentication, App Engine’s email service, and the default JDO implementation. Java features and frameworks put to use include Servlets/JSPs, Servlet Filters, JUnit 3, log4j, and Apache’s commons-lang. Fitnesse was used to automate HTML tests for web pages and XML tests for RSS feeds. FeedBurner was employed for generating a daily digest email of forum updates.

JDO Struggles - The only significant hangups I experienced centered around Google App Engine’s implementation of JDO and, specifically, my adjustment to Google’s non-relational database. Developing with Google App Engine for Java was the first time I had used JDO and my limited experience probably accounts for most of my struggles. However, many of the App Engine bugs and group discussions are with regard to JDO issues so I am not the only one struggling with it. Inserting, updating, and querying data was effortless once I got my JDO issues straightened out. The following are tasks that I found challenging and that took much longer than originally anticipated:

Defining one-to-many relationships
Writing queries that do not use the following query functions since they are not allowed: “LIKE” clause, “IN” clause, and “NOT NULL” clause
The need to use && instead of AND in queries
Setting multiple query parameters
Using the PersistenceManager in a chain of Servlets and JSPs

Recommendations - Transitioning from other Java programming environments to Google App Engine for Java should be effortless but there are some quirks that require adjustment. The following recommendations address some of the quirks:

Google Accounts for Authentication - If you use Google Accounts for authentication then encapsulate Google’s User object inside a persistent object such that a minimal amount of code depends on it. This is important because Google’s User object is subject to change and currently does not provide a primary key.
One-to-Many Relationships - Use written queries to load one-to-many relationships if you are struggling to define one-to-many relationships with JDO annotations. The App Engine Data Store has limitations that do not allow it to support the full JDO specification.
Servlet Filters - In lieu of a framework like Struts 2 or Spring, use Servlet Filters to implement features that span several pages including user authentication and database connection management. For example, in a single HTTP request you can “get” a persistent manager multiple times but cannot close a persistent manager more than once so I recommend creating a Servlet Filter that initiates a connection but is the only place where a connection is closed.public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException { if (filterConfig == null){ return;} PersistenceManager pm = PMF.get().getPersistenceManager(); try{ chain.doFilter(request, response); } finally { pm.close(); } }
Version management - Version management is limited to 100 versions for each application so only change your application’s version number when making a database change (i.e., adding and removing columns or tables).
Localize Data - Store lookup data as static arrays (or collections) to minimize database queries since Google charges for database storage space and CPU processing time.
Auto Generate Query Indexes - Write automated tests against your development server that trigger every possible query your application needs to run in production because App Engine for Java can auto generate the datastore index file that is required to configure your production database. Manually writing the datastore index file is cumbersome and error prone.
Development Server - Stop your development server from Eclipse’s debug mode (this took me a while to figure out).

Note: If you like this article, make sure you check out 3 Tips For Getting Started with Google App Engine for Java.

Robert Miller is a technology entrepreneur specializing in e-commerce and online services that integrate with social networks and mobile devices. He blogs at PardonTheInformation and you can also subscribe to his feed.

How To Protect Yourself From Offline And Online Identity Theft

Kevin Eklund — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:56:29 +0000

The internet is an incredibly powerful tool for sharing information, communicating, and learning, but it’s also an excellent resource that identity thieves use to obtain your personal information. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States and nowadays most people don’t give a second thought to posting their full name, address, and phone number on popular social networks like Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. After obtaining that information and a social security number or credit card number, it’s easy for identity thieves to open new lines of credit in your name, execute online purchases, or hack any of your online accounts. Without taking some precautions to minimize your risk you could become the next victim of identity theft.

My Experience As An Identity Theft Victim
I have personally been a victim of identity theft and understand the difficulties it involves. Shortly after the university’s employee and student database was breached by hackers last year I was notified by university officials that my personal information, including my social security number, was accessed by these internet criminals. I immediately contacted Experian to activate a fraud alert to prevent any new lines of credit from being established in my name. By activating the fraud alert, applications for lines of credit must be authenticated by contacting the individual in person and verifying their identity prior to awarding the new line of credit. This system works very well to prevent identity theft in which new lines of credit are created by the perpetrator. While it can be a bit of a hassle to activate your new credit cards or new mobile phone contracts when a fraud alert is in place, it’s much better than dealing with the hassle of resurrecting your credit after it’s been destroyed by identity thieves.

What a fraud alert doesn’t protect you against is credit card fraud. That is, thieves can still use your credit cards and bank debit cards to make online purchases. I learned this first hand about a month ago when my Visa debit card was fraudulently charged $34.84 by a company called Adipose Rx. Currently, the only solution to handling such problems is to report the fraud to the bank and close the debit or credit card. I did this and successfully recovered my funds but the closing of the debit card meant that I was without a debit card for 3-5 days prior to receiving the replacement debit card. I also had to change my forms of payment for each online merchant’s service I was using and register the new debit card once I received it. Thankfully I was able to track down each merchant and make sure they had the correct payment information without incurring any late payments.

It’s incredible to me in this day and age that the closing and reissuing of credit cards is the best solution our financial institutions can come up with. Then again, these are the same financial systems and banks that are partially responsible for the economic crisis we’re currently facing. Personally I think the perfect solution would be a transaction filtering system in which you can block certain merchants from charging your credit card. This would be something akin to the spam fighting system WordPress uses called Akismet where the community can collectively tag and submit spammers and prevent them from spamming other websites. If banks could give the credit card holders the ability to block certain merchants from making fraudulent charges it could drastically reduce the cases of credit card fraud and save the banks and consumers millions, if not billions, of dollars every year.

Protecting Your Identity Online And Offline
So how can you protect your identity on the web while still having an online presence? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers some great helpful tips on how to protect yourself from identity theft. I summarized them below and added a few other identity theft protection tips in addition to safe online social networking practices.

Guard your Social Security number - Keep your Social Security card in a safe place (not wallet). Don’t write it on your checks. Don’t use it as your drivers license number. Don’t use your Social Security number as your insurance policy number. Never give your Social Security number out to anyone over the phone, in the mail, or on the internet.
Use your shredder - Destroy any trash that has your name and address on it. Call: 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) to stop receiving credit offers in the mail. You will need to give them your Social Security number to do this.
Secure your computer - Use computer security software (i.e. Kaspersky, Norton 360), keep operating systems, browsers, and software up-to-date.
Use strong passwords that differ for each website - Using one password for every website is easy to remember but it’s very risky to do so. All it would take is for someone to access your email and find out all the services you use. From there, since you use a single password for all online accounts, it would be easy to access your banking account, credit card accounts, and other privately guarded information. I would suggest using a password manager and form filler like RoboForm (Windows) or 1Passwd (Mac) which can generate strong passwords for you, keep them safely stored, and protect you from keyloggers and phishing scams.
Consider using an identity theft protection service - Lifelock submits fraud alerts on your behalf every 6 months to prevent thieves from opening any new lines of credit. They also scour the web for your credit card and social security card numbers to make sure no one is using them fraudulently. Other ID theft protection services include TrustedID, Identity Truth, ID WatchDog, Equifax ID Patrol, ProtectMyID, Identity Guard, ID Armor, Debix, and Intelius Identity Protect
Watch out for phishing scams - Never trust emails that ask for personal or financial information and never click on the links within such emails. If you believe it’s a legitimate email message, type in the web address of the site directly into your browser. That’s the only way you know that you are indeed viewing the real website and not a phishing site. You can verify the authenticity of the email simply by obtaining a phone number from the real website or your financial records and calling them.
Be safe when shopping online - Know who you are buying the item from and what it should cost, read the item’s description and the fine print, pay by credit card, print and save the receipt.
Place a fraud alert on your credit reports - You can do this by calling one of the three credit bureaus and requesting a free fraud alert be placed on your credit report.
Place a credit freeze on your credit reports - This locks down your credit report (until you remove it) to prevent anyone from accessing it except companies for which you already have an established relationship. You need to contact Experian, Equifax, or Trans Union to activate a credit freeze.
Monitor your financial statements regularly - Review your banking statements on a monthly basis to identify unauthorized charges
Setup email and SMS alerts through online banking - Most financial institutions now offer you the ability to set alerts online to notify you of a low balance or transactions greater than an indicated amount. These can be very helpful at quickly identifying fraudulent transactions.
Check your credit reports - By law you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report every year upon your request. You can order your credit reports from all the credit bureaus by visiting AnnualCreditReport or by calling toll-free 877-322-8228. You should check your credit reports at least every year but most experts recommend that you check them 3 times a year. Check the accuracy of these reports to make sure you can account for each line of credit. If you suspect any fraudulent behavior you should contact one of the credit bureaus immediately to report it. If you want to check your credit reports, and you’ve already received your free annual credit report, you can purchase them from Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union. By the way, don’t use FreeCreditReport.com to obtain a free credit report; I checked my credit reports there last time and they, somehow without my knowledge, enrolled me in their Triple Advantage credit monitoring service.
Check your credit score - Your credit score (aka FICO score) is not the same as your credit report and free credit reports obtained from Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union do not include your FICO score . FICOs are used by most U.S. banks to quantify the credit worthiness of a person. The higher your score the better your credit worthiness (FICO scores range from 300 to 850). You can obtain your FICO score and a credit report from myFICO.
Consider using a credit monitoring service - These services generally offer you the ability to receive live access and updates about your credit reports as they change. Such services include Equifax Credit Watch and myFICO Score Watch.
Consider obtaining identity theft insurance - Your homeowners policy may already cover you in the case of a stolen identity. Check your policy to see if this is true. Identity theft insurance may or may not be worth the investment. Make sure you understand exactly what the policy does an does not cover and take into account that the average cost incurred by a victim of identity theft is around $1500.
Register your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry - This will prevent telemarketers from calling to sell products/services as well as to solicit information about you and subsequently selling that information to third parties.
Adjust your privacy settings for all your social networking accounts - Don’t share your personal information (i.e. address, phone number, email, marital status, date of birth, job info, etc.) with anyone in your social network that you don’t trust. Do this for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, your Google Profile, and any other accounts and profile pages.
Select tough security questions to verify accounts - Now days when you setup an online banking account or other online accounts there is usually a security question they ask you to fill out that helps verify that you are indeed the actual owner of the account. Sometimes it’s as simple as your pet’s name, your birth date, your mother’s maiden name, the make and model of your first car, your maid of honor or best man at your wedding, your first grade teacher, the last four digits of your social security number, the last four digits of your credit card on file, or your favorite color. I would strongly suggest you choose something that no one could ever know but you. You should especially not use information someone could obtain from your Facebook profile (i.e. birthday, pet’s name) or from a tweet you sent on Twitter. Remember, everything you say on Twitter is saved for posterity and searchable even if you delete it! Facebook notes and apps are notorious for logging personal information so give them a second thought when filling out those “How well do you know me” or “How well do you know X” kinds of quizzes. I imagine that many people submit answers to personal verification questions without realizing what their doing. There’s no telling what those app owners do with that information and how secure that data is kept.
Register your full name on the most popular websites - It would benefit you to do this for major social networking sites, blogging websites, domains, and free web based email services as it prevents others from impersonating you and helps you control your name on the search engines. If your name has already been taken, add your middle name/initial or use an alternative that includes a dash or period. You should probably not display things like your date of birth and other personal info on your profiles as those are commonly used pieces of information that identity thieves can use to gain access to your accounts. It is especially not to do this if you incorporate such personal information into your passwords, which is a really bad idea. If you don’t have the time to register at all those sites yourself you can always have Knowem do it for you automatically. They will register your name at 120 popular websites for about $65.
Monitor your name and reputation online - You can do this for free using Google Alerts by simply setting up an alert for your full name, versions of your full name (Jane Doe, Jane J. Doe, Jane John Joe), and username(s). Upon being indexed by Google, you will receive an email message with a link to the website where your name or username was used. You can also use StepRep, a free online reputation manager that’s more elaborate and useful than Google Alerts. If you want a more powerful way to not only monitor but actually control online reputations for yourself, spouse, or for your children and teenagers, check out ReputationDefender.
Start a blog - This is a great way to boost your online reputation and take control of you name. There’s plenty of sites that offer free blogs (Blogger, WordPress, MovableType, TypePad). If you want to host your own, but don’t know how to set it up, I can install your WordPress blog for free. A well kept blog will rank high for your name, especially if the blog is titled in your name (janedoe.com). That advantage to ranking high for your name in Google allows you control the content about you. Thus when someone searches for you, they see good content about you from your own blog and not from someone else impersonating you. This is a great strategic tool for managing your online reputation.
Taking down online imposters - When you encounter someone who is using your photo or pretending to be you on the web, contact the website’s owner and ask them to take the profile and your photos down.
Don’t announce when you’re going to be out of town - Twittering or sending status updates about when you’re going to be on vacation is not such a bright idea. Doing so provides an excellent opportunity for someone to access your residence and steal important identification information as well as your valuables while your conveniently out of town. Having someone house sit for you, clearly displaying home security system insignia, keeping a dog at your house, and demonstrating activity inside your home are all great ways to keep burglars from targeting your place.

How Identity Thieves Get Your Personal Information

Social networking sites - Websites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are great sources for identity thieves to gain personal info about you such as date of birth, place of employment, your pet’s name, address, and phone number. Take caution when tweeting your vacation or posting your location online. This gives the ID thieves the perfect opportunity to steal your mail or break into your residence to gather your personal information.
Fake employment ads - Identity thieves can create these in hopes that you fill out the job application and include your social security number or other information when asked.
Mail theft - Make sure your mailbox is secured and no one else can gain access to it. Identity thieves can steal your mail to gain access to banking account numbers, credit card offers in your name, or other highly sensitive accounts.
Filing a change of address form - Identity thievs can forward your mail to another address to gain access to pre-approved credit card offers and bank accounts.
Taking your trash - Identity thieves can sift through your paperwork to find personal information that may help them open new lines of credit or take advantage of any accounts you have.
Allowing others in your home while your gone - Make sure you have personal information, bank statements, and any papers with account numbers on them stored in a safe place. This includes situations when your having someone house sit for you or when workers have access to your home.
Crooked employees - These nefarious individuals simply steal your credit card number and personal information while processing a transaction for you over the phone.
Impersonating a company employee - In this case the perpetrator will call you impersonating an individual from a service provider with whom you may have a legitimate relationship and ask you for your account number or social security number. You can easily check this out by calling the company using the phone number you know is correct.
RFID credit cards - Radio frequency identification tags are embedded in many credit/debit cards these days for easy swiping. Identity thieves have been known to create RFID readers that can capture your credit card number and personal info from your wallet or purse as they pass by you.
Stealing your phone, computer, or wallet - All of these items have lots of personal information in them that a identity thief can use to his advantage.
Obtaining a credit report - Identity thieves can obtain information about you by pulling your credit report

What Should I Do If My Identity Has Been Stolen?
Below is a brief list of what you should do in case your identity is stolen. For more detailed information, see the FTC’s instructions on recovering from identity theft.

Add a fraud alert, and check your credit reports - Call TransUnion (1-800-680-7289), Equifax (1-800-525-6285), or Experian (1-888-397-3742) to notify them and you’ll receive a free credit report in the mail. Take a close look at the credit report once you receive it and report any disputed information immediately.
Close any accounts that display any fraudulent behavior
Contact the FTC to file an official complaint
Contact your local police department and file a report

Twitter Peaks To Media Overkill, Is Real Time Search Dead?

Kevin Eklund — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:47:11 +0000

Last month I pointed out that Twitter’s growth rate had slowed from 76% in March to 39% in April according to Compete. Compete statistics that were recently released show that Twitter’s unique visitor traffic growth for May was stagnant at a mere 1%. To make matters worse, Quantcast has Twitter actually losing traffic in May. This should be of serious concern for Twitter and its investors as the life of Twitter’s recent popularity is still in its infancy despite arguably receiving more media hype than any web service to date.

Twitter Traffic Growth Is Nonexistent

Add the image above to your blog (copy & paste code):
<a href="http://tomuse.com/twitter-peaks-media-overkill-real-time-search-dead" title="Twitter Peaks To Media Overkill, Is Real Time Search Dead?" rel="nofollow"></a>

Twitter's Visitor Traffic For May 2009 Is Down

It’s quite possible that the intense barrage of media coverage has turned everyone off to tweeting their little hearts out. One thing is for sure, the disappointing traffic stats aren’t for a lack of pushing Twitter. After all, it received tons of free media coverage on nationally televised major network shows and national advertising campaigns such as Sprint’s where they proudly pimped Twitter on their mobile network. Stunts like Ashton Kutcher’s challenge with CNN to race for a million followers and a followup ding-dong-ditch dare with Ted Turner elevated the public’s awareness of Twitter. Oh, and let’s not forget the Larry King Live Twitter feature where millions of people watched Ashton Kutcher, Sean Combs, and Jimmy Fallon slobber all over Twitter as they announced the Malaria Day campaign that utilized retweets to drive fundraising. In contrast, Oprah’s Twitter featured show was a big disappointment for some but nearly every media source covered it anyway. Perhaps the most entertaining and yet damaging piece was Conan’s spoof on The Tonight Show that aired recently. The video below points out just how useless twittering can be at times and it effectively pokes fun at the overinflated celebrity hype that helps drive Twittermania.

So what’s left for Twitter to do? Well, they can’t rightly turn up the marketing volume when it’s already been maxed out. And to make matters worse the stickiness of tweeting itself is now being called into question. With media overkill and such high user attrition rates, things aren’t looking so Twitterific anymore. Especially for Twitter’s investors who aren’t going to be too happy with Twitter executives if indeed Twitter ends up losing traffic for the month of June. I’m sure Evan Williams is at least second guessing that rumored ~$250 million offer from Google and the valued $500 million he was offered from Facebook back in April.

I genuinely don’t mean to come off so negative against Twitter. Rather I’m just starting to wonder if everyone, including myself, has been caught up in Twittermania believing that the messiah of online communication was going to deliver real-time search for us. It’s quite possible that we’ve all been so enamored by Twitter that we forgot about the huge number of active users it takes to generate useful real-time search results. If Twitter’s user base is indeed beginning to dwindle, what’s going to become of real-time search and exactly how useful are those search results going to be?

Comment Systems Comparison Update: Disgusted With Disqus

Kevin Eklund — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:35:09 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I would take the initiative towards making the comment system here more socially accessible. With their rising popularity and the great social features available with Intense Debate and Disqus, it made sense to put the default WordPress comment system on the back burner. I thought it would also be helpful to test, review, and compare the Intense Debate, Disqus, and WordPress comment systems prior to settling on one or the other. As I pointed out in my previous post, I had a great experience with Intense Debate but it’s lacking some of the social features that Disqus possesses.

Pre-installation Troubleshooting
I had previously attempted to install Disqus about a year ago but I ran into some errors and was unable to complete the installation at that time. After updating and reactivating the plugin this time around, I ran into another problem. My blog was associated with my old Disqus account and before I could use Disqus on my website I needed to remove that association. Disqus allows you to ameliorate that issue by clicking on the “Delete this website” link under the admin settings within your Disqus account. Unfortunately, after doing that, a message appeared saying it would take up to 48 hours for my website to be removed. I patiently waited and after a couple of days I sent an email to Disqus support. I received a reply from them another day later explaining that they had encountered a bug that was preventing the removal of my site but the problem was fixed now. I tried again with no avail and promptly contacted @disqus via Twitter. A couple of hours later I was able to have someone at Disqus remove the site associated with my old Disqus account.

Multiple Post-installation Issues
Despite the difficulty I had already encountered, I was elated to get Disqus up and running on my blog. The installation was simple and for the most part it went well except for the fact that some of the WordPress comments did not import into Disqus. The next day the loading of the Disqus comment system was slowed and it was preventing my blog’s posts and pages from loading completely. I sent a Twitter message to @disqus shortly thereafter and the error seemed to be corrected within a few hours. The following day I received a comment notification but couldn’t find the comment. I quickly realized that they must have had javascript blocked from loading in their browser when commenting as I found the comment within the default WordPress comment system. Disqus should have imported that comment but for some unknown reason it failed to do so. One other issue I found while investigating this problem was that, while Disqus was in use, the comment permalinks didn’t work. That is, when I would click on a comment notification or manually enter the comment permalink into the browser, it would navigate to that particular post but would not take me to that specific comment’s location (e.g. post-permalink/#comment-463). In contrast this function works correctly using the default WordPress comment system as well as Intense Debate.

When Enough Is Enough
The final straw that caused me to remove Disqus occurred last night when I realized that for some unknown reason Disqus was breaking/redirecting away from my posts as the Disqus comment system loaded. Interestingly, this problem was only present when loading of some of the posts. Initially I thought the culprit was the Google Friend Connect toolbar which might have been conflicting with some frame breaking script I had previously installed. After removing the Friend Connect toolbar, however, the problem remained. Finally, I deactivated Disqus and the breaking/redirecting of the posts stopped. I still don’t know why Disqus was causing this to occur, nor do I know why it only happened on certain posts and not others. Needless to say, I’m not going to be using Disqus anymore.

What Was Old Is New Again
Today I’m right back where I started with my native WordPress commenting system. I’ve recently heard that the Facebook Connect feature will soon be available to all Intense Debate users. While it’s tempting to reactivate ID, I think I’m going to stick with what I have for right now. Although I didn’t encounter any such problems with Intense Debate, I don’t want to have to worry about comments not synchronizing between the two comment systems and I don’t like the idea of my blog’s loading time being at the mercy of an external source that I cannot control. From here on, I’m going to be working towards improving the social friendliness of the WordPress comment system as it is still the best and most stable solution currently available.

Technology Funding, Acquired Startups, And Closing Announcements For June 1, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:06:59 +0000

Today’s list of technology announcement for funding, acquisitions, and bankruptcies:

Technology Funding Announcements
Sugar Inc. - A blog and media network, announced that it raised $16 million in funding from Sequoia Capital.

Cloudera - A company that provides enterprise-level support to users of Apache Hadoop, just raised $6 million in funding via Greylock Partners and Accel.

BubbleMotion - Provider of a service called BubbleTalk that lets you send short voice messages to anyone, announced that it has raised $6 million in equity from undisclosed investors.

Cliqset - An online identity platform the helps you aggregate your social information scattered throughout the web announced that it has raised $1.5 million in funding from an angel investor.

Javelin Venture Partners - A San Francisco based early stage venture capital firm specializing in technology based startups just recently launched with $70 million in funding.

Seatwave - An online marketplace where fans buy and sell event tickets received $17 million in funding from Accel Partners,Atlas Venture, Mangrove Capital Partners, Fidelity Ventures, and Adinvest.

Acquired Technology Companies
E Ink - Prime View International, the company that makes Amazon’s Kindle and other electronic readers, is purchasing E Ink for $215 million.

GreenHopper - Atlassian announced that it acquired GreenHopper for JIRA from Pyxis Technologies.

Technology Business Closings And Bankruptcies
R.H. Donnelley - In case you missed it R.H. Donnelly which bought Business.com back in 2007 for a record $345 million announced it is filing for Chapter 11 backruptcy.

Cool New Web Stuff For June 1, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:43:59 +0000

Today’s list of cool new web stuff:

Bing - Microsoft’s new search engine that replaces Microsoft Live.com

WatchDox - “WatchDox allows users to protect, control and track documents when sharing them with partners, customers and other parties.”

CardStar - “CardStar lets you easily store and quickly retrieve your rewards, club, and loyalty membership cards on your iPhone or iPod touch, where they can be scanned directly from your screen at most merchants.”

Tungle - A simple calendar sharing and scheduling tool that lets you share calendars across company boundaries and works/syncs with multiple calendar platforms.

AdCherry - “At adcherry, we make banner (display) advertising easier and more effective for your business with an innovative service that allows you to create your own free banner advertisements.”

ShirtsMyWay - “A premium platform that lets people design and buy over a trillion different dress shirts. The easy-to-use design panel interface that customers interact with is supported by a complex web system working to let people all over the world comfortably design and securely shop.”

Moogo - “Moogo is a powerful and user-friendly way to create your very own website.”

Almost.at - Permits users to follow events in real-time over over many different online services (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.) and identify which Twitter members are attending an event.

Plagium - “Plagium is an innovative, fast, and easy-to-use means to check text against possible plagiarism or possible sources of origination.”

Sched - “The interactive event calendar and personal agenda builder for conferences and festivals.”

Refollow - “Refollow helps you discover, manage, and protect your Twitter social circle.”

Picaphone - “Picaphone is the first worldwide contact search engine, available in 12 languages. With Picaphone you benefit from a centralized and constantly updated database for all your contacts, accessible from anywhere in the world.”

AlbumReminder - “Every week, hundreds of new music albums are released and even true music lovers sometimes miss important album releases. Album Reminder’s mission is to simplify this process and to provide music lovers and enthusiasts a tool which makes the discovery of new albums easier.”

SkinnyBoard - ” Skinnyboard is web-based software that helps agile project teams collaborate to get work done. It provides project boards of virtual index cards that you use to assign work, track status, and measure performance”

DefinitiveDiva - “DefinitiveDiva provides you with the resources you need to build the life you deserve by covering all bases from dating and relationships to business and lifestyle. This is a community for modern, savvy, intelligent females who measure their success in life not only by their personal accomplishments, but by the amount of help they offer to those in need.”

PutACart - “PutACart is the world’s simplest and cheapest way to sell any type of product on any type of web site or page.”

NextStop - “Nextstop is a community of people who love to discover the world around them. We enable members to exchange short, positive recommendations for the places and experiences they love most, and through this collective effort, are building a rich repository of information about the best things to do that spans the globe.”

TwitterContd - Lets you break the 140 character limit on Twitter by breaking up long tweets into multiple twitter updates. Those tweets are updated in the correct order so followers are able to understand what you are saying.

FileTwt - “FileTwt brings file sharing to twitter. With FileTwt you can now easily upload and tweet about your files for free.”

FillUs.In - “FillUs.in is a “microblogging” service with a difference. Instead of typing a bunch of text, you answer a couple of questions about your current status, and FillUs.in does the rest.”

June’s Backup Awareness Month: Win Free Unlimited Backup Via Backblaze Giveaway

Kevin Eklund — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:05:46 +0000

Apparently June is Backup Awareness Month and, despite this being the first time I’ve heard of it, it’s been around since 2005 when Maxtor declared it so. Being a victim of a failed hard drive myself, I think this is a great opportunity to remind people to backup their hard drive’s content frequently as most of that data is likely irreplaceable. If you currently don’t have an online backup solution, I would strongly suggest you find an off-site backup provider as on-site (in-house) solutions such as external backup hard drives aren’t fail safe either. Check out our review of the best online backup services which includes an online backup comparison table that allows you to sort and filter online backup providers by feature, price, and support. Many of those offer free storage for limited amounts or at least a free trial period.

In celebration of Backup Awareness Month, Backblaze will be giving away a 1-year license for Backblaze’s online backup subscription ($50 value) every day for the entire month of June. In order to become eligible to win one of the 30 free subscriptions for unlimited backup you must enter the giveaway by downloading and installing Backblaze. To add further incentive, Backblaze is giving away a Nikon P90 digital camera to one user and their friend.

According to the recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Backblaze, every year 46% of computer users lose irreplaceable data and 94% of all computer users fail to execute daily backups. The online survey by Harris Interactive was conducted within the United States and included nearly 5000 U.S. adult computer user respondents that were 18 years or older. Interestingly, according to eWeek, laptop sales now out perform desktop sales. Given that notebooks and netbooks are more susceptible to damage and theft, regular daily backups of your irreplaceable data is more important than ever.

Consumers are indeed adding more digital content to their computers as the purchase and use of digital cameras, mp3 players, and camera phones continue to rise. Today’s top 3 selling laptop computers on Amazon have a 160 GB or 320 GB hard drives. Such storage capacity allows for a ton of photos, videos, music files, and documents that could be lost forever if your laptop is ever stolen, lost, broken, or it just decides to burst into flames someday (see videos below about dangers of Dell and Apple lithium ion laptop batteries).

Commenting Systems Comparison: WordPress, Intense Debate, Disqus

Kevin Eklund — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:57:06 +0000

Recently I changed commenting systems from the WordPress default to using Intense Debate and then switching to Disqus. This need for change was due in part that I began thinking my blog needed to open up and get a bit more social. At that time, if you wanted to comment on ToMuse you needed to register. That requirement was put into place for several reasons that included cracking down on spammers, using the Social Profiles plugin, and helping to ensure good thought provoking comments instead of useless driveby link-dropping drivel.

Why Use WordPress Default Commenting?
The default comment system that WordPress uses is great because it permits total customization and allows you to easily tack on functions. There are several WP plugins that can be used to enhance the overall form and function of the comments system on a WordPress blog. These include WordPress Thread Comment, Highlight Author Comments, Comment Relish, Comment Redirect, Social Profiles, Comment Email Responder, Email Commenters, Minimum Comment Length, Subscribe To Comments, and WP Ajax Edit Comments. There are many other WP comment plugins that are very popular as well. What’s more, the default WP commenting platform doesn’t use javascript and therefore can be viewed by individuals whom block javascript from loading in their browsers (i.e. many Firefox users).

Why Use Intense Debate Commenting System?
Initially I chose Intense Debate because I figured that since Automattic (owner of WP) owns it, compatibility would be less of an issue compared to Disqus. Installing the Intense Debate plugin for WordPress was a piece of cake. I was able to sync my old comments such that they quickly displayed in the new Intense Debate commenting system on my blog. New comments that were posted using Intense Debate also appeared in my default WP commenting system too. This is especially important as Google and other search engines may not see the javascript based comments that are created by ID but they will crawl and index WP-based comments. Also if at any time I decided to stop using ID, which I later did, I wanted to maintain possession of the comments that were posted while ID.

Why I Stopped Using Intense Debate
Intense Debate works like a charm. I encountered no problems whatsoever using ID and the only reason I dumped it in exchange for Disqus was that ID doesn’t currently off Facebook Connect or Twitter Sign In. Disqus seems to be driving full steam ahead, constantly implementing new features and offering good support for it’s users. In contrast, I posted a request to integrate Facebook Connect (like many other users) and Twitter Sign In capabilities on Intense Debate’s feedback site but received no response. The Facebook Connect feature request was submitted quite awhile ago and while ID offered a limited roll-out of Facebook Connect back in March, there’s been no indication of when it’s going to be available for everyone.

My Experience With Disqus
I installed Disqus yesterday but encountered some trouble getting it up and running on the site. The problem wasn’t Disqus’ fault, it was mine really. I had initially associated my blog with an older Disqus account and needed to reassign it. Apparently there was a glitch at Disqus such that the removal of my blog from that older Disqus account didn’t take. After getting a hold of @Disqus on Twitter, they were able to quickly remedy the problem. Other problems I’ve encounter with the Disqus commenting system include 1) the inability to import many of my older WP comments into Disqus despite new Disqus-to-WP comments working, and 2) the inability to moderate/reply/add comments from the WP comments admin panel and have it carry over into the Disqus commenting system. What I love about Disqus however is its multiple access points (i.e. Facebook Connect, etc.) and the Disqus team’s desire to innovate and support its users.

Disqus Versus Intense Debate Feature List

Comment Threading - Both
Reply By Email - Both
Email Notifications - Both
Commenter Profiles - Both
Moderation - Both offer the ability to edit, delete, mark as spam, ban/blacklist comments/commenters
Comment Voting - Both (ID uses thumbs up/down voting, Disqus uses “Like”)
Widgets/Tools - Both
Comment On Twitter - Both offer the ability to post your comment on Twitter too
Comment RSS - Both
Gravatar Support - Both automatically identify and load commenter’s Gravatar via the associated email address
Trackbacks - Both ID and Disqus sync and handle trackbacks and pingbacks quite well
Two-way Comment Sync - Comments posted using either ID or Disqus are synced with the default WP comment system
Facebook Connect - only Disqus
Twitter Sign In - only Disqus
OpenID - Only supported by ID, Disqus provides workaround via Clickpass
Off-site Comment Retrieval - While ID only offers this for FriendFeed, Disqus pulls in comments from FriendFeed and many other sites (e.g. Hacker News, YouTube, etc.)
Profile Sync - When you sign in to WP it auto logs you into the ID commenting system and comments you post sync to both profiles. While Disqus comments sync with your profile on WP, you still have to sign into Disqus separately.
Post Settings To Comment System Administration - Closing and opening comments on a post and changing post titles are automatically are reflected in ID. It is currently unknown if Disqus supports this ability or not.

Final Thoughts
Really there is very little difference between the two commenting systems. While Intense Debate appears to synchronize much better with WordPress, the Disqus team seems more willing to add social features (i.e. Facebook/Twitter login, multiple off-site comment retrieval sources). I’m going to continue to use Disqus for the time being but I plan to re-evaluate its use in a week or so. Currently I’m still drawn to using the default WordPress comment system as it permits more customization. As a blog owner, if I could integrate Facebook Connect, Twitter Sign In, OpenID, push comments to Twitter/Facebook, and off-site comment retrieval within the default WP comment system I’d use it instead of ID or Disqus. As a commenter, however, I also understand the desire to track my comments across multiple sites by using Disqus, ID, or BackType. Perhaps integrating something like BackType with the native WP comments system is another option I should consider?

Update: See the followup post regarding my experience using Disqus on this blog.

Technology Funding Announcements For May 28, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:42:18 +0000

Today’s list of technology funding announcements:

Greenroad - GreenRoad raised $15 million from DAG Ventures, Amadeus Capital, Balderton Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Virgin Green Fund.

fbFund - Facebook announced 20 latest winners of fbFund, which was created to encourage applications on Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect. The winners are listed below with information about each provided by Facebook. Each one will receive ~$25,000.

Frintro: Find friends-of-friends to date…or play matchmaker! If you’re single, you can search friends’ friends and ask for intros. If you’re taken, you can set friends up. Friends-of-friends are the best people to date. It’s social dating via friendly intros.
Funji: Funji is an avatar based social networking app for the iPhone & iPod touch satisfying users’ desire to express themselves and communicate with others in a fun, creative way. The team has over 5 years of experiences in mobile market in South Korea and US.
Gameyola: Gameyola is a distribution and monetization platform for casual Flash games. Flash games currently monetize poorly, but Gameyola solves this problem by providing Flash developers tools to sell virtual goods and to acquire users through social channels.
Life360 (private beta): From keeping track of your kids, to protecting your identity and getting back your lost stuff, Life360 is the place you go to keep your family safe, secure, and prepared for daily life.
MyChurch.org: Churches create their own social networks on MyChurch.org. They extend their community between Sundays with tools to connect and engage their members. Over 30,000 church congregations are represented on
Navify: Navify is a visual encyclopedia that combines Wikipedia articles with images, videos, and comments. It is the only general encyclopedia that allows you to listen to music videos, watch movie trailers, and browse news and celebrity photo galleries.
Sortuv: Sortuv lets you start with something you like, & discover more. Instead of searching for a “great restaurant” just say what you mean: “Find me a place sortuv like Spago in Seattle”. iPhone app here.
Networked Blogs: Bring your blog to Facebook, and Facebook to your blog. Pull your feed to your profile and business pages, add widgets to promote your network, and read the news from blogs you follow on the largest community of bloggers and blog lovers on Facebook.
Nutshell Mail: Simplify the way you manage Facebook and other social networks. NutshellMail consolidates activity from all your accounts into a single email digest delivered on your schedule. Don’t let email alerts clutter your inbox. Get informed, not interrupted. Get the Nut!
Paradise Paintball 3D: Paradise Paintball is the first game developed on Cmune’s next-generation social gaming platform. It is the first casual 3D multiplayer FPS game on Facebook, Apple Dashboard and Mac & PC. Play with up to 8 friends & virtual items to enhance the gameplay.
Photos I Like: PhotosILike is a digital media sharing and discovery site emphasizing lightweight social content, self-expression, and communities.
RentMineOnline: Combines the success of resident referral programs with the power of social networks. Residents refer their community to friends through social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and email to earn rewards and live with friends.
RunMyErrand: RUNmyERRAND is a social networking inspired web and mobile marketplace that provides people and businesses an easy and trusted way to get everyday tasks done in their own hyperlocal community.
RunThere: RunThere is a social-networking service for runners and cyclists. Users can map and measure their favorite routes (no GPS required), keep a running/biking log, and find athletes and routes nearby.
TravelBrain by GeckoGo: Travel Brain by GeckoGo helps you track (and show off!) your travels, share experiences with others, and discover new places to visit. Learn from the knowledge of over 600,000 travelers, and get expert guide info for our Bradt Travel Guides partnership.
Weardrobe (private beta): Weardrobe is a fashion-focused community for discovering different ways to wear clothing. We provide a platform for people to share reviews of their own clothing, post photos of their looks, catalogue their closet and search for style inspiration.
Workstir: Workstir is a community that connects users with trustworthy local service providers. Anyone can post a job and choose a provider with confidence by browsing their past reviews. For businesses, Workstir provides a wealth of jobs in their area of expertise.
Worldly Developments (private beta): Worldly Developments is building online services that will help you connect with the people, places and events in your local community. Its first product makes it a snap to plan, promote, and communicate around group activities.
Samasource: Sama is Sanskrit for “equal” – Samasource finds and trains reliable QA professionals to test Facebook apps with a user-friendly interface that lives on the Platform. With Samasource, developers lower costs, reduce poverty, and improve their applications.
Vittana: Vittana enables you to lend directly to students in the developing world, $25 at a time. Our mission is to bring student loans to the developing world through the power of person-to-person micro-lending.

Cool New Web Stuff For May 28, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:37:15 +0000

Today’s list of cool new web stuff:

MobiQpons - “mobiQpons lets you reach out to local customers on their phones and when they are looking for deals.”

Twollars - A form of Twitter currency that is used to say thank you to people and maybe donated to charities on Twitter as well.

iGoApps - An iPhone applications directory

FWhyMe - “Fwhyme.com is a site for people to read share their everyday depressing, embarrassing, and funny stories.”

Creaza - “Creaza integrates professional and user-generated content, creative tools and a social network in a new and innovative way.”

TweetBucks - An affiliate program for Twitter that finds a match for every URL sent on Twitter. You get 70% commission for every generated sale.

Ibrii - A virtual notepad to clip, save, and share images, video, music, and text from any web pages.

Parkr - Allows you to find and review amusement parks on the map

Filmaster - A place to rate and discuss movies

Hulu Desktop - Hulu’s new desktop application

Phonevite - “With Phonevite, you can instantly communicate with multiple people over the phone, and you can receive immediate responses from them as well.”

yfrog - “yfrog is a service run by ImageShack that lets you share your photos on and videos on Twitter”

Zimplit - A free lightweight, customizable content management system

WeAreHunted - “We listen to what people are saying about artists and their music on blogs, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, message boards and forums, Twitter and P2P networks to chart the top songs online everyday.”

TechInvestorNews - “Tech Investor News is an intelligent news aggregator for investors who want all their technology sector news in one, always-updating website.”

FairSpin - “FairSpin is a site that collects the full spectrum of political news and opinion and lets the community sort it out. By voting if a particular story leans left or right (or not at all), the community works together to separate news from opinion (opinions are great, they just shouldn’t masquerade as news).”

ShowDocument - “Show Document is a quick and simple way to share a document with other people at the same time. It is a web collaboration platform that lets individuals have a free online meeting.”

SongTwit - Enables you to share music on Twitter

Funding Announcements For May 27, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:17:27 +0000

Today’s list of technology funding announcements:

HeyZap - Announced today it has raised somewhere between $500,000 to $1 million in seed funding from Union Square Ventures

Ultracell - A provider of fuel cells for mobile applications announced $3.8 million via BASF Venture Capital, OnPoint Technologies, Espirito Santo Ventures, and Miami Valley Venture Fund

Peer39 - Announced Series C round funding of $10.5 million via Israeli VC Evergreen Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Dawntreader Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and JP Morgan

TeachStreet - TeachStreet announces $1.2 million in funding from from existing investors and management team

1000Markets - Ecommerce marketplace raised $503,000 in seed funding

VMware - VMware bought a 5% stake in Terremark, which produces cloud and managed IT services

Telesphere - received $15 million financing round from Rally Capital, Hawkeye Investments, Greenspun Corporation

Cool New Web Stuff For May 27, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:07:05 +0000

Today’s list of cool new web stuff:

Transferr - “Transferr takes pictures of your favourite sites and presents them as icons on your home page, ready for easy access.”

Tweetlister - “TweetLister is a free service that allows real estate brokers and owners to take full advantage of the vast, wide-reaching social network on Twitter.com.”

MashLogic - “MashLogic is a Firefox extension that works quietly under the hood to enrich web pages with the kind of information and media you care about. It’s respectful of your privacy, and super simple to use.”

Psionica Vortex - “Psionica Vortex is a digg-like website focusing on ghosts, psychic phenomenon, unexplained mysteries, cryptozoology, UFO and general paranormal and supernaural.”

Kontup - “Kontup is a web-based business management tool that provides an easy and fast way for small to medium sized teams or companies to manage projects by tracking revenues, work load and all business related things.”

Qajack - “Qajack uses video to play with what you know and what you want to know.”

Glympse - “Glympse is a groundbreaking new way to share your location with anyone for a specified period of time using patent-pending GlympseWatch timer.”

DrunkTwt - “anonymous, uncensored twitter updates for everyone”

Peas N’ A Pod - “Peas N’a Pod was created to let people express themself through Pea Pages and to meet other people with similar thoughts and interests.”

TweetTunes - “TweetTunes is a Twitter application on the web that takes information about bands and artists from Twitter and processes this information so that it is viewable by you.”

RoamBi - “Use RoamBi to transform your existing data from a variety of sources into state-of-the-art, interactive visualizations for the iPhone.”

CallTweet - “CallTweet is a free way to link your phone with Twitter.”

TinyChat - “With Tinychat, you can create your own chatroom and invite people through one simple link.”

PeopleBrowsr - An Adobe AIR desktop app that combines social networks like Facebook and Twitter

DTXTR - Lets parents decode their teen’s texts, and stay on top of the texting trend

Zensify - “Zensify is the new, unique lifestreaming app for the iPhone that lets you easily update, discover and keep track of what’s important to you across multiple networks”

StatPlot - “Puts the power of creating charts in the hands of sports fans.”

Mixero - “The new generation Twitter client for people who value their time and are tired of information noise.”

Weebly - Drop dead easy way to create your own website using drag and drop interface

DeepDyve - “DeepDyve delivers fast, easy access to the vast amounts of expert information hidden in the Deep Web.”

Navify - “Navify is an interface for viewing Wikipedia with videos, images, and comments.”

Google Web Elements - “Google Web Elements allow you to easily add your favorite Google products onto your own website.”

Thymer - “Project management and task planning for people who hate project management and task planning.”

Swoopo May Be Most Profitable, Ingenius Online Business. But Is It Legal?

Kevin Eklund — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:47:43 +0000

Swoopo is an online discount auction (a.k.a. penny auction) where individuals purchase bids to place towards an item that’s up for sale. The cost of the bids are usually $0.75 and once placed they raise the price of the item by either $0.15 or $0.01 depending on the product. A 20-second countdown timer is reset by each time a new bid is placed and when the timer reaches zero, the last bidder wins. The winning bidder pays the final price of the auction which is usually at a great discount of the manufacturer’s retail price (MRP) for the item.

From an ecommerce business standpoint this “penny auction” style of selling is genius because it provides an opportunity for the auctioneer to make a very hefty profit. That is, if you consider that each bidder pays a fraction of the cost of the actual value of each bid (i.e. $0.75 /$0.15 bid) and hugely discounted items attract numerous bidders and feverish bidding wars. For example, the HDTV pictured below received $0.15 bid increments ($0.75/bid) until it reached its final sale price of $288.75. That means that 1925 bids were placed ($288.75/$0.15) and Swoopo made $1443.75 off the bids plus $288.75 from the final price that was paid for the item. Thus the total gross income received by Swoopo for the sale of this product was $1732.50. If you use the MRP that’s reported by Swoopo to calculate the net profit of this single item, not including any other expenses by Swoopo, you get a result of $432.51. At a calculated return on investment (ROI) of 33% ($432.51/$1299.99 x 100), it’s a very bountiful profit for Swoopo. Even more impressive is this 1 ounce gold bar that sold for $216.98 at $0.01 bid increments priced at $0.75 per bid. That turns out to be $15,470.14 in net profit and an ROI of 1,516%!

HDTV Sold On Swoopo

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Gold Bar Sold On Swoopo

As you can see the potential profit margins are huge but they vary across items. Items that don’t attract many bidders fail to bring in profits, thereby making it even more important for penny auction sites like Swoopo to reap such high profits as those identified above. Thus, the greatest risk to such online penny auction sites is during the initial early deployment stage of the startup when traffic is low and therefore so are the number of bidders for a particular item.

Critics of this style of online auctions say they’re akin to gambling and some are even calling for government regulation. I, however, disagree as it is no different than any other online auction in that the highest bidder wins and by doing so must pay the final bid price for the item. The fact that non-winning bidders pay for bids has no bearing on the issue as those are paid upfront and are considered no different than common membership fees that many businesses charge for accessing their services. Moreover, the chances of placing the winning bid maybe no better than your chances at winning on eBay if you factor in the unfair advantage that some bidders obtain through their use of sniper bidding software. Unlike eBay, you don’t have to worry about whether or not the auction is a scam and you have a 100% chance of receiving the product after payment. That is, the condition of products are unquestionable as they are always brand new and they are provided by Swoopo, not anonymous persons whom may never ship your item once they receive payment.

The legality of these penny auctions may be questionable however as there is no obvious precedent that can be applied. But with the current staggering growth of Swoopo and its tremendously large profit margins, I’m quite certain someone is going to cry foul and press the issue. It wouldn’t surprise me to see eBay back this movement given eBay’s history of making poor business decisions and flagrant use of law suits used to strengthen their presence as the premier online auction provider. Especially since eBay is losing buyers and sellers, the popularity of this style of auctions is surging, and new competitors such as GoBid, BidCactus, ThePerfectBid, and Zoozle are entering the market every passing day.

Funding Announcements For May 26, 2009

Kevin Eklund — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:49:54 +0000

Today’s list of technology funding announcements:

Facebook - Facebook announced $200 million from Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies raises Facebook valuation to $10 billion

LogLogic - $8.8 million from Focus Ventures and others

MarkLogic - $12.5 million round of financing from by Sequoia Capital and others

OpenX - OpenX announced it raised Series C venture capital round of $10 million

DailyBurn - Secures $525,000 seed funding round led by FF Angel and others

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