Mar 5 2009

Buzz Meter: PeopleBrowsr

March 5, 2009 – 3:30 pm

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“When new Tweets, photos, videos and posts come in from the feedosphere, they’re like fragments of a person’s online presence. PeopleBrowsr assembles the parts into a whole, connecting the dots and building a complete picture.” – PeopleBrowsr

PeopleBrowsr is another Twitter client that allows you to view your Tweets in a “simple visual dashboard.” PeopleBrowsr is a browser-based solution, rather than an Adobe Air application, so users can access their account on any computer with the Internet. PeopleBrowsr is built on open source modules.

Through PeopleBrowsr, you can search interesting topics, find and follow old and new friends, create cross-network groups, and write ‘PeopleProfiles,’ which is like a PeopleWiki. PeopleBrowsr provides three panes on the dashboard: one for your conversation stream, another for your gallery and the last one for a map (you can change these panes to show videos, pictures, people you follow, your followers on Twitter and even specific search items). It also offers search filters, a way to categorize groups (and set them to public or private) of friends with ‘PeopleTags’ and even #hashtag groups. You can also track people on your other social networks, i.e. Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc., as well as update your status using this client. All profile data from these accounts are incorporated, too. Users only need their Twitter or Facebook account login information to use this client.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: PeopleBrowsr offers an array of features, which their competition can’t ignore. It is also much easier and fun to use than other clients. A great way to manage all of your social networks, especially Twitter, on one dashboard. The best aspect about PeopleBrowsr is the ability to use it on any computer – unlike other apps that run using Adobe Air.

Negative: PeopleBrowsr is not compatible with all web browsers. Currently this tool runs on “a broadband connection, FireFox 3.0.5/ Safari 3.2.1 or higher and a Pentium IV or Mac. It works best in Safari 3.2.1.” Sorry IE users!

Conclusion: I predict this PeopleBrowsr to become one of the most widely used Twitter clients! It’s easy to use and the features will surely grab the attention of avid social networkers.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged , , | Comments (7)
Feb 26 2009

Buzz Meter: Lizzer

February 26, 2009 – 10:30 am

Lizzer – pronounced like lizard but without the “D”– is a bookmarklet created by Digital Sciences, LLC. The tool searches for blog posts, online documents, pictures and videos without leaving your blog editor or your email service site.

Lizzer offers seven services from an assortment of multimedia:

  • the Web – Delicious, Delicious Account, Google Web or Yahoo Web searches
  • Documents – Docstoc, Docstoc Account
  • Image – Flickr (CC), Flickr Accounts, Google Image Search, Yahoo Search
  • Blog – Google Blog Search
  • News – Google News Search
  • Video – Google Video Search, YouTube, YouTube Account

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You can use these services to search for links to add to your email or blog. Simply enter your inquiry in the search field and Lizzer will do the rest. It provides snapshot images of pictures and videos. And for other searches, the ability to link the selected result’s URL to a word or phrase, insert the URL, video or picture directly into the blog or email, or preview the selected search result.

The bookmarklet works with the following email and blog platforms: WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, tumblr., Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and AOL Mail. Lizzer is compatible with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 7.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Lizzer is a great tool for anyone to use, especially people dipping their toes into blogging. The bookmarklet provides results from an array of multimedia searches all at one click of the button. Lizzer is easy to use and install.

Negative: If you exit out of the current webpage you reviewing, the bookmarklet automatically closes. Of course you can go back and start the bookmarklet again, but it would be nice if you could decide when to close Lizzer. Another negative aspect to Lizzer was the amount of search terms. I searched a fairly popular YouTube video and only received about 4 to 5 Google search results in Lizzer.

Conclusion: Lizzer really is “linking made easy.” You should definitely test and see if this makes your blogging or email writing effortless.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (1)
Feb 19 2009

Buzz Meter: Busuu

February 19, 2009 – 10:30 am

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Have you ever wanted to learn a new language? Or tried Rosetta Stone and decided you need interaction with a native speaker of the language? Enter Busuu, an innovative online community for learning languages.

Busuu, the name derived from a language spoken in Cameroon that supposedly only eight people in the world speak fluently, combines social network features with language learning. With over 150 learning units, Busuu connects you with native speakers of different countries, and offers all of this for either a basic (free) or premium plan (monthly memberships).

The language learning tool provides users a “Language Garden” filled with trees that grow as you learn your language(s) of choice. The top four languages offered are English, Spanish, German and French. The 150 learning units feature:

  • Key vocabulary – simple words for visual learning and audio playback for pronunciation
  • Reading comprehension – practice reading various paragraphs
  • Writing – after learning phrases, write a short text and let your native speaker friends correct you
  • Chat – directly talk with native speakers
  • Exam – take a test to see what you learned
  • Transcript-PDFs – download the learning unit transcript
  • Podcast – download all the audio for the learning unit

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Busuu has over 80,000 users and is unique in the sense that it offers an online community dedicated to learning. Most of the online communities are built for providing a basic service (i.e. Facebook provides you a profile then you do what you want with it). Busuu presents users with two great offerings: social networking and/while language learning.

Negative: Busuu offers a video tour of their “Language Garden” and how to use their social network features. I found this video confusing since it only provides music and images (I guess they didn’t want to add any languages to make the video tour user-friendly). Busuu only encompasses learning units for the top four languages: English, Spanish, German and French. The only way to learn other languages is to directly chat with other native speakers.

Conclusion: Busuu is an interesting product as it provides a gateway for people to learn new languages and culture from meeting new people. Once Busuu starts offering more learning units for other languages, I’m sure more and more people will want to learn a different language. Join now and let’s learn German together! My username is Marmones.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
Feb 12 2009

Buzz Meter: Snitch.name

February 12, 2009 – 10:15 am

The beauty of social media is that the relationships you build in person can extend to online social networks, blogs, and other social media tools. Snitch.name, also known as “The Social White Pages”, allows you to find information about almost anyone on specific websites.

To find information about a person, input their first and last name and select from an assortment of sites categorized in social, professional, academic, blogs, general search engines, and regional. Snitch.name will provide snapshots of the results all in one page and it’s free. Some popular sites include Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Myspace, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, and Wordpress Blogs.

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Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: The results are two-fold, you get the information you’re looking for from the person you searched and now you can connect with them on the networks you haven’t.

Negative: Concerns for privacy is always a factor when joining a social network or signing up to use a specific tool. For Snitch.name, there is no way to stop anyone from searching your name and retrieving information about you.

Conclusion: Snitch.name is a good way to find information about someone – especially since you don’t have to go to these sites separately to find if a person is on Facebook or Twitter. You’ll be surprised as to what information anyone can find about another person on the internet just by using Snitch.name. I suggest you try this tool on yourself and see what comes up!

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (5)
Feb 5 2009

Buzz Meter: Survs

February 5, 2009 – 10:30 am

Need a place to create and conduct surveys? Meet Survs, a collaborative tool that allows you to build, deploy and analyze online surveys. Currently in private beta, this web application provides an array of features, which include the customization of surveys (look at feel), creating survey questions and selecting from four types of response formats (from single to multiple choice answers, one-ended text, and a matrix).

You can also select which direction your want your choices to appear in, horizontal, vertical, or a drop-down menu. Add as many choices as you want, randomize your answers; decide which questions require a mandatory response, and even edit the language of the survey (the next, exit the survey, etc. type buttons). Do you want to send a survey via email or a URL link? You can even embed a survey as an iFrame, a popup, or a popup with an invitation.

Sure it’s simple to make a survey, but what about the results? The analyzing feature is very useful and easy to comprehend. Each questions’ responses are calculated based on the percentage of completed surveys. The respondents tab provides a list of the respondents in order of completion. It also provides the amount of time it took the respondent to finish the survey and allows you to view the individual’s question responses. The filters allow you to focus on two types of subsets: simple and expression. When Survs is out of private beta mode, they will provide a free plan, a $20-$60 a month (depending on number of users and responses) for their services and offer a special fee for yearly subscribers.

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Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Survs is very easy to use. I created my first survey without viewing the eight minute video tutorial they provide you when you sign into your profile (the video will always be provided to you until you “turn off” the welcome tab). The contextual help buttons are very helpful. If you plan to email your respondents with your survey, you can send a test email of the survey to yourself.

Negative: To email your survey, you have to manually input all of the email addresses separately. It takes five minutes to send a survey – even to an individual. I assume this is part of the private beta and the amount of time it takes to send a survey will be less than five minutes.

Conclusion: Businesses and individuals keen on market research will really enjoy this tool. Each survey can be catered to really fit the needs of any type of survey. From extensive to simple surveys, Survs delivers. SurveyMonkey better watch out!

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
Jan 29 2009

Buzz Meter: Noovo

January 29, 2009 – 11:00 am

Share any kind of online content in one place with Noovo. This “social discovery engine” is a blogging, bookmarking, lifestreaming, content sharing application – not a social network. The Noovo Corporation is based in California and Slovenia, and the Noovo app recently launched out of private beta last week.

Noovo aggregates the most interesting stories, photos, videos, events, people and groups, then recommends the ones they think may be of interest to their members. Users can publish their own content, republish any other online content (including stories found on Noovo), and share the content with anyone or just their Noovo friends.

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The recommended stories are listed under the “Cover” area where users can add interesting stories to their profile, read the reason why the story was recommended (through the light bulb image), and add something (story, video, photo, etc.) to the current public Cover stream. Thumbs up and thumbs down signs are also provided to determine whether a story is popular amongst Noovo users.

Noovo members get to sync their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Wordpress and Blogspot accounts to their Noovo profile. Account holders can select which languages they want to read their content in, add an avatar, configure how often they would like to receive their Noovo notifications, add widgets like Last.FM, and change the design of their profile. To save time, Firefox users can drag and drop the “Take it to Noovo” or “Noovo Broadcaster” to their browser’s bookmark toolbar to add something to their profile or share with other Noovo members. Settings include updating Facebook status and Twitter account through a conversation bubble provided in a member’s profile.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Customization allows users to define their space; Noovo offers an array of designs and even allows you to upload unique design. When something doesn’t work, you are notified and then Noovo automatically takes you to their feedback page.

Negative: After joining the Noovo community, it is hard to decipher how to get started beyond customizing your profile. You have to really work with your Noovo account to realize that the “Cover” area is where your recommendations are and to get to your profile you have to click on “Settings.” The enormous number of features can also be overbearing for users, especially when a get started tutorial is not provided. Additionally, importing and/or inviting friends from Facebook and Gmail accounts can seem “spammy”.

Conclusion: I think Noovo is an interesting application and provides an abundance of useful features. Noovo still needs some polishing before it can become that one stop shop it desires. Try it out and let me know what you think!

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged , , | Comments (3)
Jan 22 2009

Buzz Meter: SlideShare

January 22, 2009 – 10:30 am

clip_image002More and more social media tools are reinventing themselves and moving forward from the “beta” phase or introducing new features to their original list. One of these tools is SlideShare, which recently launched a feature that allows/combines YouTube videos in SlideShare presentations. Based in San Francisco and New Delhi, this tool enables people to share all types of presentations online.

The free service lets you:

  • view and download presentations (through their search bar)
  • upload your own presentations (formats include PowerPoint, PDF, ODP, and PPS)
  • embed presentations into blogs, websites, etc.
  • use the Slidecasting tool to create audio presentations
  • create and share conference invites, archive slide decks and publicize events
  • control which presentations you want to share through the privacy feature
  • vote in SlideShare’s annual ‘World’s Best Presentation Contest’
  • find and make friends to share/view presentations together
  • add widgets and badges to you blog or website

SlideShare applications allow you to share your presentations with colleagues, friends and other people in your LinkedIn and Facebook networks. The tool also has the PowerPoint Ribbon plugin, which lets you use most of the SlideShare features from within PowerPoint. And with the newest feature, YouTube videos, you can embedded multiple videos to your presentation. The company blog also offers more information about the latest SlideShare features.

Here is a SlideShare presentation of their latest feature – YouTube:

YouTube videos inside SlideShare
View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: slides presentations)

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Creating an account and navigating through the site is simple. The combination of FAQs and “how to” slideshow presentations are very helpful. Anyone can use this tool.

Negative: SlideShare is covering much ground by adding video, but still a lot of competitors that offer just as much as they do. For instance, SlideSix supports MOV (QuickTime). Currently, SlideShare only supports up to 100 MB for each presentation. If you have a very elaborate presentation with videos and high resolution graphics that surpasses 100 MB, you might have to break up your presentation.

Conclusion: I like the features that SlideShare offers. You can share professional presentations via LinkedIn, general presentations via Facebook, and with the new YouTube video embedding you can liven up your presentations. SlideShare is a great enabler of sharing information through presentations.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged , , | Comments (1)
Jan 15 2009

Buzz Meter: DestroyTwitter

January 15, 2009 – 10:00 am

clip_image002[11]Twitterers, there’s a new Twitter app in town: DestroyTwitter (DT). No, DestroyTwitter does not mean to literally destroy twitter. The creator, Jonnie Hallman, believes that with destruction comes creation – his version of carpe diem.

DestroyTwitter is a “robust but compact Twitter application built on the Adobe AIR platform” (a reported 11% of all Tweets sent are using an Adobe AIR application). DT consists of a series of canvases that constantly update and keep tweets current.

DestroyTwitter has all of the standard features you would expect if you were using the Twitter home site:

  • Tweet Timeline (old, new, most recent)
  • Post tweets
  • Reply
  • Direct Messaging
  • Search
  • Profile Views
  • View saved tweets (Favorites)
  • URL shortening

The newest version (1.1.0), which was announced today, now includes:

Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: DestroyTwitter is a great app for new Twitterers trying to find a Twitter app to use. It’s simple and convenient.

Negative: DestroyTwitter has a lot to offer, but it might not be enough at this point. DT seems to have what a majority of what other Adobe AIR apps already offer. For the TweetDeck lovers, DT would feel like a downgrade. DT also states on their site: “Note: Twitter’s API is inaccurate at times in regards to a user’s following status. Occasionally, a user you are following will appear as not being followed and vise-versa. Twitter has been contacted pertaining to this issue and is working to fix.” Expect to see some bugs!

Conclusion: I think DestroyTwitter has a lot of potential. DT’s already updated and added a bunch of features with its newest version. If DT can find that one feature to separate itself from the competitors, it will be a huge hit. Download the 1.1.0 Beta release (don’t forget to download Adobe AIR).

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (2)
Jan 8 2009

Buzz Meter: ammado

January 8, 2009 – 11:00 am

clip_image001Now that the holidays are over, it doesn’t mean the spirit of giving is over. ammado is a global community platform of nonprofits, socially responsible companies and engaged individuals dedicated to bring about positive social change through the power of the internet.

ammado was founded as a mission-based, for-profit enterprise in Dublin in 2005. In 2007, a beta version of the site was released. Since then, the site has grown and is now available in 12 languages with activities in over 100 countries and accepts 33 types of currencies. The free service has over 3,000 nonprofit organizations using the site to increase awareness, engage supporters, and accomplish their objectives.

ammado offers two families of products: a stakeholder engagement tool and a giving circle. The ammado stakeholder engagement tool is free for nonprofits and individuals and allows them to use web 2.0 technologies to engage with each other in a unique interactive environment. The ammado giving circle is an innovative donation feature designed to make the act of giving more enjoyable and flexible.

Registered members receive:

  • a member profile that includes:
    • a community passport
    • an opportunity to add supported nonprofit organizations, companies and/or create communities
    • send messages and make comments to friends’ profiles
    • uploading photos and videos (photo-tagging enabled)
  • a chance to make new friends and invite existing friends to join the ammado community
  • widgets – to showcase their support on blogs or other social networking sites

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Registration for ammado took less than 2 minutes (you have to wait for your verification email before your registration is complete). Searching for nonprofits organizations to donate to is simple. ammado provides a full list of categories and regions to help narrow the organizations you’re looking for. To use ammado, you do not have to be a member. Non-members are more than welcome to donate through the platform.

Negative: Like many transactions occurring over the Internet with credit cards, transaction fees apply. ammado takes 5%of all donations to cover these fees.

Conclusion: ammado is a great community for donating and meeting people with the same passion to give and help others. ammado is an innovative platform for social networking and social cause, and I highly recommend becoming a member.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter, social cause | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (9)
Dec 11 2008

Buzz Meter: Connected By Distance

December 11, 2008 – 10:30 am

Online communities connect people all over the world. Through the Web, people engage in conversations and create, discuss and share stories. No matter the story, whether people fight to be a voice for those in need or if friends make a podcast together across the region, communities can affect us all.

The Connected by Distance project, created by Jake McKee – The Community Guy, aims to collect and share positive online community stories. Fifty of the best stories submitted to the project will then be edited and presented through book form. Connected by Distance emphasizes the power of online communities and showcases them through these stories.

To get involved with the project all you need is:

  • A great story to share about the online community’s affect on your life. Any topic is acceptable.
  • To read the submission guidelines. Just remember, maximum word count is 600, all entries must be in English, and any stories with foul or offensive language will be rejected.
  • To click on this link: “Share Your Stories.” Start writing! If you need help, refer to the writing tips.
  • Tell your friends about Connected by Distance. Have them submit stories, read the ones already submitted and rate those they’ve read.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: The project is a great way to hear about people’s cherished online community stories and it’s easy to participate in! The writing tools are also very helpful.

Negative: Although stories can be rejected (“story submissions that are terribly unclear, aren’t focused on the power of online community, or have grammar so bad that it gets in the way of the storytelling”), it is still necessary to keep the project’s standards of high quality submissions.

Conclusion: Connected by Distance is a brilliant project. It brings people together through stories and also makes them aware of how powerful the online community is, as well as social media tools. For instance, “How Lauren Got Her Groove Back,” shares how Twitter and blogging helped her meet her Brazilian beau. As I always say (sorry if you think this is corny), “Sharing is caring – it can be fun.”

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (3)