Qitera is a social bookmarking and page-saving tool that helps members organize and share information. In addition to making bookmark-sharing easy, the site stores copies of pages, allowing retreival even when the original page is no longer online. It is offered as a free service for individuals and will be provided for a fee to business clients with multiple accounts in 2009.

The Qitera gallery, which is reminiscent of Apple’s iTunes application cover flow display, lets you thumb through bookmarked pages and, return a saved copy of the content for reading, printing or sharing with another Qitera user. A list view is also available if you prefer a more traditional approach to saved pages. Sharing, adding more notes and deleting saved pages is straightforward.

The site also emphasizes members’ ability to explore and share information. Once you have friends or colleagues on the site, their saved bookmarks are available for browsing by topic or member name, if they have given permission. 

You’ll want to install the Qitera browser button, which, when clicked, automatically saves the current page to the Qitera service. When saving a page, Qitera opens a window that provides access to existing topic categories, which are effectively the same as tags used on other bookmarking sites to organize information, as well as add coments about the page for future use. Multiple categories can be appended to the saved page. 

The site is a bit complicated, which is not a barrier to getting a lot of value out of the service and to be expected at this early stage. For example, in addition to “categories,” there are “topics” that members can create. These are intended to provide storage for specific collections of documents; the two terms, however, are very closely related, which makes them appear redundant. Also, the placement of options for adding new items, at the top if the list view of saved pages, initially gives the impression, at least to this writer, that saved pages could be annotated with additional saved pages.

Likewise, until members find people with whom to share bookmarks, much of the site’s power is hidden. It’s a new service, so I was not able to find anyone I knew when searching by name. We always suggest inviting people selectively rather than uploading your email contacts en masse.

The group features are less prominent for free accounts because the service is designed for corporate, or “enterprise,” use. In sharp contrast to many social sites, Qitera definitely wants to make money, and soon. They must be careful not to limit individual users as they build their corporate business. 

Companies will be able to purchase accounts that allow teams to share bookmarks and saved content beginning in March 2009. 

Home Page: Qitera.com
A social bookmarking and content repository for individual and enterprise members

Free and Fee

Facebook home pages aggregate site- and Web-wide activity

Facebook is one of the most popular social network services in the world, with more than 150 million “active users,” more than 70% of them living in countries other than the United States. Founded in early 2004, the site was originally designed to provide college students with networking services. A “facebook” is a paper guide for university students that includes freshman photos and names to help incoming students get acclimated and begin building friendships. 

Facebook outgrew its initial charter by 2006, as its early members graduated and entered the work world. While it still offers facebooks for individual colleges, half its members are at the end of 2008 were not at universities — the fastest-growing group is people older than 30. The site has introduced a set of tools, called application programming interfaces, that can be used to build software that extends Facebook features to other sites as well as incorporate features into the site itself. The company claims that as many as 52,000 software applications have been built on the Facebook Platform.

It is commonplace today to see Facebook members use their Profile page, which lists their current and past Facebook status messages, to aggregate feeds from other social sites, such as Twitter and Ping.fm. An initial wave of early adult users has spread word of the service and it is typical to find professional organizations, companies and recreational groups using Facebook as their primary channel for online communication.

Facebook Profile pages let members share and discuss lifestreams

In addition to the user’s Profile page, the Home page for each member displays recent activity by friends and groups joined through Facebook. This makes the site a popular hangout where connections are rediscovered or strengthened because members have shared photos, video and blog postings that attracted attention of old friends or people who share common interests. 

Facebook provides calendar sharing with invitation services to help groups get together in physical venues, “cause” groups that help catalyze movements through members’ social connections, and a variety of media and social features.

The varied ways to view and organize feeds within Facebook take some time to learn. For example, there is a tab called “Boxes” on the Profile page that is there only to accommodate applications that are displayed within a box on the site. It could be made a lot easier to use, but many people might find this to be the definition of “flexiblity” and enjoy tinkering with all the options.

Once you’ve joined Facebook, be ready to learn a few new concepts:

• Poke-Members can send a “poke” to let others know they thought of them, but these can also become a nuisance if people who “poke back” receive an automatic poke in reply. It leads to long strings of contentless messages
• Groups-While “groups” are a common idea, their use by Facebook members varies from the one-time event to permanent assemblies dedicated issues of local, national or international importance. It is very easy to be overwhelmed with invitations and keeping up with lots of groups.
• Friend-”Friend” doesn’t necessarily mean someone you know or have ever met. At least, not to many people on Facebook. It is perfectly acceptable to say “no” to an invitation to become friends. Some members claim to have thousands of friends, but would be hard-pressed to recognize those people if they met in person or, even, in Facebook. 

Facebook operates on advertising revenue and uses personal information to place ads on Home, Profile and other member pages. To change your preferences to limit access to your information by other members and the applications you use, open the Settings and select the Profile button. The site also lets you block individuals. Applications, however, can gain access to your profile if you give them permission unless you visit the Applications settings and select specific kinds of data you will let applications collect or the “Do not share any information about me through the Facebook API” option. 

Home Page: Facebook.com
A popular social network with members worldwide.

Free

Video programming can pay at Blip.tv

Blip.tv is a video-sharing and hosting company that helps videographers and videobloggers earn money from the programs they produce. We haven’t finished our introduction to Blip.tv, but don’t let that stop you from adding your review in Comments.

Home Page: Blip.tv
A videoblogging host that pays producers based on ad revenue generated.

Free

Think Twitter with songs and you get Blip.fm

As members add blips, the site displays the profiles of others who have “blipped” the same artist or song. This facilitates exploring people with similar tastes. Adding others to a favorites list creates a feed of the songs and comments those people share.

The main screen of Blip.fm looks a great deal like micro-blogging site Twitter. Short messages are displayed with links that play the blipped songs. Click on the first song in the list and the site will continue playing all the songs displayed or you can browse through blops to find tunes to play individually. A novel set of keyboard shortcuts, which can be found in the lower section of the right column of the home page, makes navigating through songs very convenient.

Songs can be added to the Blip.fm network by members, who must have the legal right to share the music. If you like a song on a commercially released album, the artist or record label must be the source of the song. To share a song, open the Settings menu, select “Music” and enter a URL for the song you wish to put on the network. That means you’ll need to have stored the song on a Web-accessible computer or a public file-sharing site that doesn’t require a login, which would prevent Blip.fm from reaching the MP3 file.

But the vast majority of songs are either made by members, independent bands, or are out of copyright, which makes Blip.fm a rich source of alternative music. Many “mainstream” artists songs are available on the network. They can be shared if they are on the network, but it is against the terms of service of the site to upload them.

Blip.fm provides integration with Twitter, FriendFeed, Tumblr, LiveJournal, Jaiku and Last.fm accounts, so that member blips can be republished and shared on those sites.

Since many songs are shared by members, it’s possible that a song will disappear from the network because the host PC is turned off or disconnected. We found no broken links to songs during our visits to Blip.fm.

Blip.fm displays ads and offers links to purchase songs and to buy concert tickets to earn its money. 

Home Page: Blip.fm
A member-programmed radio station built on micro-blogged messages.

Free

Dwellicious gathers home-buying options for discussion

Dwellicious is a social bookmarking site for real estate, allowing home shoppers (what few there are these days) to collect listings and share them with friends, family and real estate professionals. Using a bookmarklet, button users add to their browser toolbar, members can send a listing found on a collection of real estate sites to their Dwellicious account. 

The Dwellicious bookmarklet examines the page, extracting the address, photos and details, including the price if the home is for sale, about the home listed on the bookmarked page. The information is stored on member’s profile page, where they can share and discuss their options with others.

The Dwellicious bookmarking tool

Collections of bookmarked listings can be shared in a rich “mash-up” (combination of Web services collected from many sites) accessed through a hard-to-identify button at the lower right of each listing. For example, Google Maps shows street-level photographs of the home from the curb, allowing members to explore the neighborhood. Property valuations and comparable properties are available from several sources, providing a range of perspectives on the price of the home. “Walk scores” that measure the distance to retail, grocery stores and other amenities are listed, as well. 

At this writing, the following sites are supported by Dwellicious:

• century21.com
• coldwellbanker.com
• craigslist.ca
• craigslist.org
• cyberhomes.com
• frontdoor.com
• har.com
• homes.com
• homesdatabase.com
• realtor.com
• redfin.com
• remax.com
• rentals.com
• trulia.com
• yahoo.com
• zillow.com

Home Page: Dwellicious.com
A social bookmarking site for home shoppers.

Free

Reading Trails presents thematic connections between books

Reading Trails combines members’ interests in reading with an intriguing way to browse the relationships between books and authors to present new books you might want to read. Using “trails,” essentially lists of books entered by members based on the relationships between titles the member chooses, one can explore a series of ideas and books. 

Reading Trails takes a different approach to sharing books than GoodReads, Shelfari and LibraryThing. It will appeal particularly to readers who enjoy making connections between their books. The site also appears to be recruiting experts and university professors to create trails, which could be a fascinating source of reading ideas.

The site only recently launched and when testing it we encountered some broken links and minor malfunctions. Creating trails is a bit challenging to use. For example, when entering the first book, there is a Save button at the top of the page that doesn’t seem to do anything. Instead of saving the book and giving some feedback and offering the opportunity to enter a second book, nothing appears to happen when Save is clicked. You must scroll down to search for a different author’s works. It takes some time and dedication to build a trail, though there is real value in the results.

Browsing trails is entertaining. A visual list of book covers is presented with cues that describe the number of intersections with other trails for each title. It’s easy to find books that provide more new paths to explore. Tags make the underlying data searchable, so you can drop into the middle of several trails by searching for a book title or using tags. Books are available for purchase from Amazon and local bookstores that participate in Reading Trails’ service.

Unlike other reading sites, this one also helps you find books at the local library through WorldCat.org, a global interlibrary database. With one click, I was able to find 10 library systems, each with multiple branches and copies of the book, within 60 miles of my home. 

Home Page: ReadingTrails.com
A readers’ network that provides intriguing paths to new books

Free

FlixWagon records live video from mobile handsets

FlixWagon is a service that provides members the ability to record live video from their mobile phone. Qik is another option for mobile video recording. We haven’t finished our introduction to the service, but don’t let that stop you from giving the community your thoughts and review in Comments.

Home Page: FlixWagon
Provider of live video recording from mobile handsets. 

Free

Seesmic is the video conversation hub of the social network

Seesmic is a video discussion site on which people post messages and respond to one another only in video. Here’s a conversation by BlogQueen about what is the best kind of traffic to a Web site and a host of responses. Members’ activity is presented in a public timeline that allows easy browsing through their messages. If they prefer, members can keep their timeline or individual videos private, allowing individuals and small groups to communicate amonst themselves

Seesmic uses the Flash video recording tool from Adobe

The tools for creating video are simple. Members can upload a video on their hard drive or, using Seesmic’s Flash recorder, make a video of themselves, add a title and description. An international site from the outset, Seesmic also allows members to specify the language they speak in the video. 

When you launch the recorder, a window will appear asking if you will give permission for Flash to use the webcam and microphone (see picture to left). You must choose “Allow” to begin recording. The tool will deliver video only to Seesmic and has permission only until you leave the recorder page or post a message. It will not record unless, after granting permission, you click the “record it” button on Seesmic. You won’t be recorded without your knowledge. After making a video message, you have the opportunity to review and approve it before posting.

Seesmic videos can be shared or “embedded” in another Web page. This requires you have access to past a snippet of code into the other page where you want to display the video, so it is a straightforward proposition to embed video on your own blog and sites that allow HTML in comments.

The Seesmic site is integrated with Twitter, so that video links and descriptions are published to the member’s Twitter feed automtically. The site also has a strong “block list” feature to help prevent communication from others from whom the member does not care to receive videos. No one under 18 is allowed on Seesmic and nudity is prohibited.

Just as on other social sites, members can build a list of people to follow, receiving alerts about new videos. Profiles on Seesmic are also unique, as they are presented in video rather than just text. 

Home Page: Seesmic.com
A video discussion site that lets you share video conversations across the Web.

Free

12seconds is micro-blogging in video

The 12seconds site makes recording very easy. If your PC has a built-in webcam, the site will recognize you are ready to record. If you have more than one camera or microphone, for example, if you have a headset and a built-in mic, the recording tool asks which you want to use. 

12seconds uses a video recorder based on Flash, a Web tool. When you launch the recorder, a window will appear asking if you will give permission for Flash to use the webcam and microphone (see picture to left).

Flash Player permissions used by the 12seconds recoder

You must choose “Allow” to begin recording. The tool will deliver video only to 12seconds and has permission only until you leave the recorder page or post a message. It will not record unless, after granting permission, you click the “record it” button on 12seconds. You won’t be recorded without your knowledge. After making a video message, you have the opportunity to review and approve it before posting.

In addition to video, you can add a short text message, tags and your location to help viewers find your video based on different attributes–they may be looking for video about particular topics or messages recorded near their location. 

12seconds also provides the ability to email video to the site. The email address for sending video is displayed in your settings and on the right side of the video recorder in the 12second site. The site is also integrated with Twitter, so that links to 12second videos and text messages will be automatically posted on members’ Twitter account. It also works with FixWagon, a mobile video recording service that works with a variety of mobile handsets.

The 12seconds community, although relatively young, appears to be very active. Discussion of popular messages is engergetic and a growing number of members are building large followings with their video. Come on by and check out my channel or hear about when I took my wife to Forks, Wash., to see where the novel Twilight is set.

Home Page: 12seconds.tv
A video micro-blogging service and social network. 

Free