Turtles with Facebook Urged to Vote in #openwebawards [VIDEO]
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The finals of our annual Open Web Awards are hotly contested, with 170,000+ votes cast since Wednesday. Among the most active categories: the top videos and channels on YouTube.
Popular YouTube channel CardGamesFTW has a strategy to help it beat out the competition: turtles. At least, a humorous clip linking turtles, Facebook and people called “Steve” aspires to drive more votes for the channel in the “Funniest YouTube Channel” category.
The competition is tough, however: competitors include top YouTubers ShaneDawsonTV, Smosh, loadingreadyrun and RayWilliamJohnson.
If you’d like to vote for or against CardGamesFTW this year, head over to the Open Web Awards site, and remember you can vote once per category per day.
Cast your votes in Mashable’s Open Web Awards 2009 >>
Reviews: Facebook
Bing Accused of Censoring Simplified Chinese Language Searches
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The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof is controversially asking web users to “Boycott Bing“, claiming that Bing is censoring Simplified Chinese queries even outside the People’s Republic of China.
Last night, Bing responded to Kristof’s Friday afternoon posting, citing a programming bug but failing to deny the censorship claims.
To us, both sides of the argument seem lacking.
Boycott Bing?
Kristof’s complaint is part of an ongoing debate: should US companies censor their search results to appease Chinese authorities? Those in favor say it’s simply good business sense to be present in China, and censored results are better than no results at all. Others see search engines compromising their values.
But that debate concerns search results within Chinese borders: Kristof says Simplified Chinese results are censored wherever you search from:
…conduct the search with the simplified characters used in mainland China, then you get sanitized pro-Communist results. This is especially true of image searches. Magic! No Tiananmen Square massacre. The Dalai Lama becomes an oppressor. Falun Gong believers are villains, not victims.
What’s most offensive is that this is true wherever in the world the search is conducted – including in my office in New York. If Microsoft felt it had to bow to Chinese censorship within China’s borders, based on the IP address, that might be defensible. But when Microsoft skews its worldwide searches to make Hu Jintao feel better, that’s a disgrace. It becomes simply a unit of the Central Committee Propaganda Department.
Kristof then somewhat undermines his argument by admitting that Google does much the same thing, albeit to a lesser extent: “Google censors results on its search engine used within China, google.cn, but offers mostly uncensored results using simplified Chinese characters on its worldwide browser, google.com. However, some searches on google.com, such as images for Falun Gong, are also censored.” Should we boycott Google too?
Bing Responds
Bing’s response is unconvincing, vague and evasive, suggesting simultaneously that “some results” are fine, and that a bug might be partly to blame.
As Mr. Kristof reported over the summer, we did fix a bug in web search that addressed this issue. There are some queries that provide very balanced web results, for example 六四 天安门 (June 4th Tiananmen). We recognize that we can continue to improve our relevancy and comprehensiveness in these web results and we will.
In addition, today’s investigations uncovered the fact that our image search is not functioning properly for queries entered using Simplified Chinese characters outside of the PRC. We have identified the bug and are at work on the fix. We expect to have this done before the Thanksgiving holiday.
If Bing is in the clear here, their response is poor. The answer they should have given if there’s no case to be made: “We don’t censor Simplified Chinese search results outside China. It’s a bug and results will be improved by Thanksgiving.” To respond in these vague terms implies Bing has something to hide.
GrandCentral Website Shuts Down Next Month: Download Your Data and Contacts
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Google has already transitioned GrandCentral users over to Google Voice, and now comes the final step in that move: Google is shuttering the GrandCentral website and telling users to download any old messages and contacts they have on that site. The GrandCentral site will be closed on the last day of the year – December 31st – and a further reminder will be sent before that date.
In a mail to users today, the company advised:
The GrandCentral website is shutting down – GrandCentral is now Google Voice.
Dear GrandCentral User:
We’re writing to let you know that we will be closing down the GrandCentral website as of December 31, 2009.
All GrandCentral accounts were upgraded to Google Voice earlier this year, but since that time, you’ve still been able to log-in to your GrandCentral account and listen to old messages there. You will no longer be able to log-in to your GrandCentral account after December 31. Because of this, we strongly suggest downloading any messages or contacts that you want to keep in the next 43 days.
We will send you another reminder before closing down the site, but we suggest you take action now to download any information you want to keep.
- The Google Voice Team
It seems the end of 2009 will also bring an end to the GrandCentral name, but the excellent telecommunications service continues to flourish under the Google brand.
Reviews: Google, Google Voice
Tags: Google, Google Voice, grandcentral
Tila Tequila Continues Her Ustream Video Meltdown [LIVE VIDEO]
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Social media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example.
Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped.
Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a gun, played around with a knife, ranted about Shawne Merriman, and stripped naked, all live for thousands of people to see (the video was immediately taken down).
Despite claiming that she would never use her Ustream ever again, Tila is back on live video, and this time it’s even more bizzare. She is streaming as “Jane Cordovez,” which seem to be her alter ego for the evening. She is not only waving around a gun once again, but is dancing around with a sword. Yes, a sword. And that’s only half an hour into the live stream.
It’s unfortunate that she’s allowing her breakdown to be publicly streamed. While her brand has always been racy, the last few days have been simply bizzare. If she indeed has issues, we hope she gets some help.
The live, unfiltered video stream is below:
Tags: live video, Tila Tequila, ustream, video
UNDERDOG: Google Android Smashes Apple iPhone in Reader Vote
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We’ve been matching up popular web services, applications and mobile apps against each other in heated one-on-one battles here in our weekly Faceoff Series. Last week Microsoft Office bested Google Docs in a head to head race for the title of office suite champion.
This week we turned our attention to a rather timely battle being waged on the mobile front, between Apple’s still wildly-selling iPhone platform and Google’s slower to boil Android mobile operating system. Apparently the latter has been gaining some ground, resulting in our first unexpected upset victory in the Faceoff series.
… Google Android is the winning platform by a more than 2:1 margin. Out of 5045 total votes, Android walked away with 3323 of them or 66%, while the iPhone platform only netted 1494 or 30%. The tie vote included 228 or 5% who just couldn’t choose between them. Many people cited the openness of the platform and third-party development process as well as Android’s versatility, being able to be put to use not just on phones but also netbooks, tablet devices, eReaders and more.
Still, given the popularity of the iPhone we were a little surprised by these results. Are you? Let us know in the comments.
Web Faceoff: Overall Results
Week 1:
- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)
Week 2:
- Tumblr vs. Posterous
- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)
Week 3:
- Pandora vs. Last.fm
- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)
Week 4:
- Twitter vs. Facebook
- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)
Week 5:
- WordPress vs. Typepad
- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)
Week 6:
- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)
Week 7:
- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)
Week 8:
- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)
Week 9:
- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)
Reviews: Android, Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress
Tags: android, apple, Google, iphone, Mobile 2.0, web faceoff
Fido Factor Finds Dog-Friendly Places in Your City
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This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.
Name: Fido Factor
Quick Pitch: Fido Factor is a dog-specific local search and review site and iPhone app built for dog owners. It’s a “Yelp for dogs.”
Genius Idea: We dog owners love our canines: it’s really that simple. We raise them, feed them, play with them, sleep with them, and fall in love with them. We want to take them almost everywhere we go too, but that’s where you start running into problems.
The problem is also simple: there aren’t a lot of places where you can take your dog. It’s only appropriate to bring your pup to certain restaurants, parks, and hotels, but it’s practically impossible to know which places are OK for your loyal companion.
That’s where Fido Factor comes in. The site calls itself “the ultimate guide to dog-friendly locations.” Its purpose is really clear: to tell you where you can bring your dog in your city. Fido Factor goes beyond that, though, with a well-designed website and companion iPhone app.
Fido Factor compiles a user-generated list of dog-friendly locations. Currently, it’s only available in four cities: Boston, San Francisco, New York City, and Portland, but that list is growing. Simply search for a location type (i.e. restaurant) and you’ll find a list of dog-friendly locales, along with ratings, reviews, and a filled-in Google Map. It really is a lot like Yelp, but for dog lovers.
There are few other cool features to note. The biggest one is the Fido Factor iPhone app, which not only tells you about nearby locations for your best friend, but even has a feature called “Pooch Pics,” where you can take a picture at a location and upload it for all to see on the website. The website also boasts Facebook Connect integration.
Fido Factor is still small, and it is very simple, but it really solves a constant issue for dog owners effectively. Finding a place to gather with your dog-loving friends has never been so easy.
Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”
Tags: bizspark, dogs, Fido Factor
Droid Does: A Price Drop
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When it was released earlier this month, the retail price for the Motorola Droid was $200 for new activations on Verizon. Although Verizon is staying firm with that price point for now, it appears that some of its retailers are not.
Specifically, Amazon and Dell have both cut prices on the smartphone to $150 and $120, respectively. The news comes just one day after news broke of price cuts by online retailers on other devices not named iPhone: the Palm Pre and Pixi.
Of course, the device cost shouldn’t really play a huge role in consumer’s decision given the total costs of ownership for all of them are well into the thousands of dollars over the life of the wireless contract. Nonetheless, if retailers are slashing prices, meaning they’re making less on each sale, it could be a sign that these iPhone alternatives aren’t selling as well as anticipated.
So far, it’s been estimated that the Droid sold about 100,000 handsets in its first weekend and 250,000 in its first week on the market.
[Disclosure: Motorola is a sponsor of Mashable's Open Web Awards.]
Tags: droid, Mobile 2.0, Motorola, smartphones, verizon
Top 10 News Readers Judged by Mashable Readers
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Each Friday we choose a Lunchtime Poll topic to get a sense of how Mashable readers feel about the chosen topic of the week. Below are the results from last Friday’s poll, where we asked for your favorite news reader.
Is your favorite app or service not represented in the list? Let us know in the comments! And to make sure your vote counts next time, be sure to vote in this week’s Lunchtime Poll, where we want to know your favorite video-sharing service.
A surprising number of readers in the top 10 were Mac apps, and enough of you said you’d switched to using Twitter as your primary news source to propel it to #5. Google Reader was far and away the winner though, with over three times the number of votes for the 2nd place finisher Feedly.
Top 10 Mashable Reader News Readers
10. Reeder (iPhone) [warning: iTunes link]
9. Times (Mac)
8. Klipfolio
7. Shrook (Mac)
6. NetNewsWire (Mac)
5. Twitter
4. FeedDemon (Windows)
3. NetVibes
2. Feedly
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotography
Tags: google reader, lunchtime poll, news readers, polls, rss, twitter
HOW TO: Use Social Media to Find Black Friday Deals
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Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and teaches marketing courses at Marketing EggSchool. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.
We’re a week away from Black Friday and just a few years ago, if you wanted to find the best deals, you had to wait for the sales flyers to hit your newspaper or mailbox. You’d make a list of what you wanted and get your game plan together. But that’s all changed because of social media. Tools like iPhone apps, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook will be key in helping competitive shoppers get a leg up against the thousands of shoppers vying for the deals of the century this season. And with holiday spending projected to be down 3% from last year’s low numbers, stores are doing whatever they can to make it easier for shoppers to spend their money with them.
Blogs and Websites
Weeks before Black Friday, blogs and websites like Black Friday 2009 and BlackFriday.info have been uploading sales flyers from every store imaginable to help shoppers plan out their attack on the biggest shopping day of the year. For gadget-lovers, Gizmodo’s #blackfriday feed has the latest posts about the best electronic deals to be had.
Mom-related blogs and forums, such as MomsLikeMe, a geography based networking site, or Triangle Mom2Mom, focus on the strategies for what to do with the kids when shopping on Black Friday, local sales and events, and advice on how to stretch that dollar even farther.
The benefit to blogs is that they are updated constantly, with deals being posted every day. Find one or two you like and subscribe to their RSS feeds to stay abreast of the latest Black Friday news and offers.
My Black Friday Deals takes a sprinkling of social media and mixes it together with a dash of blogging to create a place for shoppers to interact. The site uses the mobile photo slide show app Whrrl to allow bloggers to take pictures of the best deals they can find in stores and upload them to the site to be voted on by deal seekers. The best deals will then be shared on Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook.
Full disclosure: Susan works with Collective Bias, which runs My Black Friday Deals.
Social Media
Bloggers, consumers, and brands alike are all using Twitter and Facebook this year for Black Friday. Staples has been “leaking” its own Black Friday deals on its Twitter and Facebook accounts for days, and a search for the term #blackfriday on Twitter nets an endless stream of deals, tips, and links that will help shoppers save on Friday. You can also check out the @blackfriday account, which tweets Black Friday news from across the web.
Macy’s too has been priming its followers on Twitter for its Black Friday sales, as well as its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. Wal-Mart, which has claimed it won’t be beat on price on Black Friday or after, is tweeting its deals already in place, and will likely do so through Black Friday.
The dedicated Black Friday blogs and web sites (such as the ones mentioned above) are also getting a piece of the social media pie by creating Fan Pages on Facebook, like the one for Black-Friday.net. Pages like this really put the power in the hands of the people, who can share deals as they find them.
YouTube is chock full of videos about Black Friday, as well. The site has a large library of clips from both consumers and major news networks, with advice on handling the crowds on Black Friday, what to expect at the stores, and tips on which stores have the best deals.
There’s an App for That
Now that I have an iPhone, I get excited about functional, useful applications like the Black Friday apps that have come out this year. DealNews has a free Black Friday app that lets you sort deals by “Early Bird,” “In Store Only,” and “Limited Availability,” as well as see photos of the sale items.
The Toys R Us Big Book Favorites app lets users make wish lists, find deals, and share deals (it’s free, too). The $0.99 BF Deals app, meanwhile, lets you see a map of other users at stores so you can find a less crowded one (assuming a lot of the shoppers have the app), and it sends your deals to your Twitter account. There are others (do a search in the iTunes store for “Black Friday”), and stores like K-Mart and Wal-Mart may incorporate Black Friday deals into their existing iPhone apps.
Wrapping It Up
If you’re planning to brave the crowds on Black Friday, be smart. Get on Twitter, Facebook, or the dozens of Black Friday blogs to find the deals you want. Take your iPhone with you to reduce the number of stores you go to in fruitless search of items that were sold out at 5 AM. And most of all, good luck to you!
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MarcusPhoto1
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto
Tags: black friday, deals, List, Lists, shopping, trending
LUNCHTIME POLL: What’s Your Favorite Video Sharing Service?
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It’s Friday, people, which means that not only is it Follow Friday, it’s also time for the Lunchtime Poll! Last week we wanted to know about your favorite news reader (or whether you use RSS at all). We’ll have the results for you later today, but let’s get a head start on the new poll: what’s your favorite video sharing service?
We’ll start off with some responses from the staff here at Mashable, and let you fine folks have at it in the comments. Be sure to let us know along with your vote why you chose it as your favorite. We’ll post the results next week to show the zeitgeist from Mashable readers.
Are you in? Let’s roll the question!
What’s your favorite video sharing service?
Mashable Faves
Adam Ostrow: YouTube or Ustream. It’s all about the content.
Pete Cashmore: YouTube.
Sharon Feder: I’m not a power user, but Vimeo is definitely my favorite.
Ben Parr: Viddler, YouTube, and Ustream, depending on the situation.
Christina Warren: Vimeo, because it has the best quality.
Barb Dybwad: I like Qik for mobile, Flickr for short visually-interesting clips, and YouTube for an endless stream of distractions punctuated by hilarious cats.
Tamar Weinberg: YouTube because it actually can process Kodak Zi6 videos (Flickr and Vimeo cannot), but Vimeo has a really awesome GUI.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotography
Reviews: Flickr, Mashable, Vimeo, YouTube, iStockphoto, ustream
Tags: flickr, lunchtime poll, qik, ustream, viddler, video, video sharing, youtube
Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
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Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers!
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Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers, and many more. You’ll receive hundreds of thousands of views a day in addition to weekly recognition to thank you as our premium sponsors. Are you interested? Contact us for more information and to receive our media kit and rate card.
This week, our valued sponsors are The NY Times Reader 2.0, Leapfish, Web 2.0 Expo New York, nimbb, MOTOBLUR, Conduit, Clickatell, Influxis, EdgeCast, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, Sun Startup Essentials, and Eventbrite.
Times Reader 2.0, powered by Adobe AIR, is a downloadable software application offering a digital experience of The Times that’s very much like reading the printed newspaper. Whether you’re using Windows, Mac OS or Linux, Times Reader gives you everything you’d expect from The New York Times in print, delivered to your computer in less than a minute. After you’ve synched, no Internet connection is needed, so you can take the most insightful journalism with you wherever you go.
LeapFish is an evolved search engine that provides a single, connected, multimedia experience for both searching and sharing traditional, social and real-time content making the new web easier to navigate, more integrated and ultimately more efficient.
Nimbb is the easiest way to add video recording to your Web projects. Using our Nimbb Player and API, any developer can integrate webcam video recording in their site easily. Our Flash player can be embedded using a few HTML lines and we host everything on our server. Developers can create a free account and our subscription prices start at only $9 per month. Our company is located in Montreal. We created Nimbb to answer our own needs to have a video recording widget that we could use in many projects to lower our development cost. Anyone that subscribes to our “Platinum” package before November 13th will get 5000 additional videos as a bonus (that’s a $599 value)! To get your videos, simply use our contact form, specify your account’s email, and mention “Free videos with Mashable”.
MOTOBLUR from Motorola was built expressly for the way people communicate today. It’s the only service that automatically delivers and organizes your conversations, contacts and content from all your favorite sites and sources in easy-to-manage streams. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messages, Gmail or work e-mail, MOTOBLUR keeps track of it all and serves it up on a customizable home screen and integrates it through the phone. Plus, with MOTOBLUR you have peace of mind, because all of your info is backed up and secure. Discover MOTOBLUR on Motorola CLIQ available at T-Mobile. It’s time to spend less time managing life and more time living it.
The Conduit On-Demand Marketing Platform offers web publishers of all sizes various solutions, including creating and publishing a branded community toolbar, sending your community desktop alerts, sharing and distributing content from the Conduit Marketplace, and much more. The platform is free, easy-to-use and very powerful, and is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers. Anything you can put on a website can also be deployed on a community toolbar and offered to your users wherever they are on the web, including: your logo, content, gadgets, feeds, social media tools, chat windows, games, services, links, and more. Every community toolbar also comes complete with a search-box powered by Google, to ensure your users have easy access to the most popular search on the web. Click here for more information on how to set up your own community toolbar, send desktop alerts, and find cool content and gadgets – for FREE!
Clickatell offers bulk sms and mobile marketing solutions. Over 700 networks and over 200 countries covered.
Influxis is an official Adobe hosting partner and resource for the Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server. Influxis provides Flash hosting plans for all levels of use – beginner to enterprise. With a reputation for exceptional customer service, Influxis provides an extremely reliable international network of FMS servers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
EdgeCast Networks offers a superior, cost-effective, global content delivery service that gives our customers competitive advantage in the delivery of digital media. Our world-class content delivery platform provides customers the cost benefits and flexibility of controlling their own content delivery network while liberating them from ISP contracts, capital investments and operational hassles.
BizSpark is a program which offers new software businesses and entrepreneurs access to Microsoft design, development, and production tools with no upfront costs for up to three years. Members can also connect with a nationwide community of Network Partners – investors, incubators, service providers, and entrepreneurial organizations – who are keen to help.
For more information, or to connect with a Microsoft BizSpark advisor, please visit MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark.
MailChimp is a powerful, easy-to-use email marketing service. You design, me deliver.
If you’re working for a startup, Sun can help you get it off the ground fast. We created the fee-free Sun Startup Essentials program offering deep discounts on industry leading, power efficient systems and storage products, optimized open-source software, massively scalable Web hosting services, plus free visibility via Sun’s co-marketing engine. It’s time to build your business on the kind of infrastructure that can scale right along with the skyrocketing demands of success. Find out about Sun Startup Essentials today!
Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.
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Mashable would also like to thank AttentionPR for their PR support. AttentionPR proves that PR today is measurable, transparent, and yes, social. Learn more about AttentionPR.
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Reviews: Facebook, Firefox, Gmail, Google, Internet Explorer, Mashable, MySpace, Safari, The Conduit, Twitter, adobe AIR, linux
Seesmic Launches Mobile Apps for Android and BlackBerry
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Hot on the heels of the launch of the Windows desktop app preview, Seesmic has brought its Twitter client to the mobile arena as well with the launch of clients for the Android and BlackBerry platforms. Both apps are available for free — get the Android version from the Android Market and the BlackBerry version by pointing your BlackBerry to Seesmic.
We had a chance to test out the Android build on the Motorola Droid and came away impressed. The interface is well-designed and easy to use. Read on for our impressions and a demo video below.
Four buttons at the top take you to timeline, replies, direct messages or profile views. Drilling down into an individual tweet allows you to reply, DM reply or retweet using the “original” RT style. Composing a tweet includes the ability to add location information, include a photo or video from your gallery or one on the spot from the camera, and shorten included links using bit.ly, J.mp or Tinyurl (you can make your selection in the Settings along with your choice of photo and video service).
From the profile view of yourself or another Twitter user, you can drill down into their tweets, favorites, followers and who they’re following, plus reply, direct message, unfollow or block them. It’s a nice level of detail, with one small omission which we’d love to see added at some point — support for Lists. Since Seesmic Desktop and the web version both added support recently, we’re sure it won’t be long before mobile clients get an update as well.
As compared to the current leader on the Android platform, Twidroid, Seesmic compares quite favorably to the free version. The app display is high-definition (the first high-def Twitter client on the platform, according to Loic Lemur, CEO and founder of Seesmic) which makes it more visually attractive — quite stunning on the Droid screen, for example. It does lack the search capability and trending features on Twidroid, but nevertheless the app is solid and a worthy addition to the Twitter client arsenal on the Android platform.
We’ll be testing out the BlackBerry version as well (pictured, below, along with a demo video of both clients), and Loic says sit tight for an iPhone version coming soon. We’d love to hear your impressions on both clients if you have a chance to check them out. Are you a Seesmic user excited about your Twitter client experience coming to the mobile? Let us know in the comments.
Reviews: Android, Seesmic, Seesmic Desktop, Twidroid, Twitter
Tags: android, blackberry, Mobile 2.0, seesmic, twitter, twitter clients
50 Cent Symbolizes the Impending Live Video Explosion
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Some of the recent numbers being put up by live video events on the Web are giving TV a run for its money. Take for example the New Moon Premiere, which attracted 3 million viewers in total, a U2 concert on YouTube that reached 10 million, and the red carpet event for This Is It, which saw 1.8 million tune in.
Today, we have yet another big number to share, this time from last night’s Ustream premiere of 50 Cent’s movie “Before I Self Destruct.” In total, more than 255,000 users watched at least part of the 90 minute screening, which included the hip hop mogul answering questions live from fans.
Although not as huge as some of the other events, it’s perhaps more significant. As opposed to debuting the movie on MTV, VH1, or BET, 50 took to the Web and reached an audience of comparable scale to what he might have found on TV. Granted, he’ll still use other mediums for promotion, but in light of his numbers and those of others, expect a lot more events like the Self Destruct premiere in the near future.
That’s not to say the Internet is going to be as destructive to television as it’s been to print media, but we’re certainly starting to see it emerge as a strong compliment, if not competitor, to more traditional means of video distribution. We knew this was coming, but a combination of bandwidth proliferation and integration with social sites seems to be pushing live video to a tipping point. And where 50 goes, the money typically follows.
Reviews: ustream
Tags: 50 cent, live video, social media, ustream, video
3 Creative Ways SMBs Can Use Social Media for Holiday Discounts
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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Every year consumers turn to the web to scour for the best holiday shopping deals. Black Friday has practically become a holiday of its own, with retailers jumping on the bandwagon earlier than ever to satisfy deal-hungry consumers. This holiday season you have an opportunity to leverage social media channels for trackable giveaways and discounts that can not only boost your holiday sales but improve your social media presence.
1. Direct Message Discounts
If you’re looking for fun and innovative ways to drum up your follower count on Twitter, or create more engagement between you and your customers, consider offering direct message-only holiday discounts.
Here’s how this could work. Come up with a holiday deal that is significantly better than any of your existing promotions and make sure to share it with your entire team. Then use your social media channels to send out shareable clues about the promotion. You could tweet something like, “exclusive holiday Twitter deals on X,Y,Z, DM us for details.”
For this type of promotion to work, it’s all about the details. First, make sure you follow new followers back so that they can send you a direct message. Also, determine whether or not you want this to stay underground, or whether you’re open to having the deal spread online. The benefit of the former approach is that select customers feel privileged, but the downside is that you’ll need to generate a new discount/offer code or “password” for each person.
On the flip side, if you have one password/coupon/discount code, then anyone can get it via direct message and share it with their friends, which means you could get more mileage and buzz, but fewer followers. Figure out what your goal is and go with it, full steam ahead.
You might even get more mileage out of the deal if you offer a double deal (double whatever the original deal was) when you hit X amount of followers before a certain date. That could give deal-seeking customers the incentive to promote you in the hopes of saving even more.
2. Facebook Freebies
We’re seeing more and more brands use their Facebook Fan Pages for fan-only deals, discounts, and coupons, and there’s no reason why you can’t use the holiday season to do the same for your small business.
This works for both online and offline retailers, but should you have a physical store, using your Facebook Fan Page to create a holiday coupon for an extra X% off already discounted merchandise would be an instant way to gain more fans and please holiday shoppers on the hunt for a bargain.
Since Facebook is so ubiquitous, if you go this route, make sure to inform your team members to tell customers about the deal while they’re shopping. You can even teach employees how to show customers how to become your fan on Facebook from their mobile phones, thereby making them eligible for the extra savings instantly as well as getting a new fan on the spot.
3. Social Media Sharing
Whatever your sales goals are this holiday season, chances are you want to sell more of your products and services, but usually it’s your customers and super fans who do all the real selling for you. Here’s where social media can help.
Use your email newsletter, Twitter account, Facebook Fan Page, and website to encourage your customers to share what they love most about your small business online. Encourage them to upload a photo, create a video, or pen a blog post about the products or services they love most. Also make sure to instruct them to tag the content with a predetermined tag. You can make the incentive whatever you want it to be, but offering each participant an X% discount off existing sale prices would be well received.
This approach works best if you make the announcement on your own blog and request that participants include a link to their shared media in the comments section of the post. Also, remember that due to new FTC guidelines, you should encourage participants to disclose the deal or discount.
More business resources from Mashable:
- Why Social Media Is Vital to Corporate Social Responsibility
- HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI
- 5 Important Web Video Lessons for Small Business Owners
- Top 5 Must-Read Social Media Books
- HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags for Business
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphoto
Tags: business, Holiday, List, Lists, small business
New Moon Reviews: What Twitter Thinks [CHART]
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Twilight-mania just won’t stop! More than 400 million “New Moon” videos have been viewed online, the film is expected to beat all midnight opening records, and Twitter continues to be abuzz with “New Moon” chatter.
On Wednesday, we reported that more than 81,000 tweets were sent out about “New Moon,” most of them positive. So how did the Twitteratti respond to the debut of “New Moon” last night? Our friends at Crimson Hexagon ran the numbers and this is what they figured out.
Out of 4500 tweets sent regarding the film, this was the breakdown:
41% can’t wait to see it
14% are sick of the whole thing
6% want to know how it was
24% loved it
10% expected more
7% are really tired after going to the midnight show
It will be interesting to see if these figures line-up with overall fan reactions or if this is any sort of indication as to how well the film will do this weekend as a whole (aka – “The Twitter Effect“)
Have you seen “New Moon” or are you planning on seeing it tonight? Let us know!
Tags: crimson hexagon, new moon, twilight, Twilight: New Moon, twitter
Target Facebook Page Updates by Location or Language
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Here’s a neat new feature we noticed on our Facebook Page this morning: the ability to target updates to users in specific locations or users who access the site in a specific language.
You can imagine this being useful for situations in which you’re promoting an event, or, posting content in multiple languages. By targeting only those that an item is applicable to, you reduce your chances of overwhelming your fans with unnecessary information to the point that they start hiding your updates.
To use it, there’s now a pull-down next to the “Share” button with the option of “Everyone” or “Customize.” Everyone lets you post a message to all of your fans as normal, but Customize lets you enter in a location (all the way down to the city level) and/or a language to post only to those that the settings apply to.
At the moment, it doesn’t appear you can create more than one custom group, so you’ll have to edit it each time you want to try a different location or language. You can however target multiple locations and languages simultaneously.
How might you use the new targeting capabilities? Let us know in the comments.
Tags: facebook
New Moon Videos Have Already Been Viewed 400 Million Times Online
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New Moon might go down as one of the biggest movies of the year, but it’s also quickly becoming one of the biggest online events ever, at least in the world of online video.
Visible Measures, which tallies what it calls the “True Reach” of an online video (the original, official trailers, copies of the trailers, fan-made trailers, fan commentary, etc.), now reports that New Moon is the second biggest event of all-time, trailing only the omnipotent Soulja Boy in term of total views. In all, the firm estimates that New Moon inspired videos have now been viewed in excess of 400 million times.
Looking at the charts, it would appear that Soulja Boy’s position at the top is likely to remain secure, but if you tally the totals for both the first Twilight movie and New Moon, the franchise combines to take the top slot, beating out the likes of Beyonce’s Single Ladies video, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and Susan Boyle. The domination is likely to continue for a while – the third Twilight movie has already been filmed and will be released next summer.
Reviews: twilight
Tags: new moon, twilight, video
Mac Twitter Client Socialite Adds Twitter List Support
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In the month or so since Twitter started rolling out its Twitter Lists feature, a number of web and Adobe AIR based clients have added support for it.
However, we haven’t seen any native Twitter apps support Lists. Today Realmac Software released Socialite Beta 3 for Mac OS X, including, among other enhancements — basic list support. Realmac acquired Socialite (then named EventBox) back in October and expects to release the first version of the program by the end of the month.
Socialite is a multi-purpose social media client, and like Seesmic Desktop, TweetDeck and Brizzly, it lets you track and update your Facebook and Twitter accounts. But Socialite goes a little further — adding support for Google Reader, Flickr, Digg and even RSS feeds.
The nice thing about Socialite is that it is a native Mac OS X app, which means it runs faster and has better performance and stability than some of the other multi-service clients. In Socialite 1.0, Beta 3, Realmac has fixed some bugs, changed how some of the authorization system works and added some new features.
The biggest new feature is support for reading Twitter Lists. Right now you only have the ability to watch lists that you’ve created because the Twitter API doesn’t let developers access all subscribed lists. If that changes in the future, Realmac will update List support accordingly. For version 1.0, Socialite won’t have the ability to add or edit your own lists, but that’s something the team is working on for future releases. Finally, although not in Beta 3, Retweet support (as Twitter officially supports it) is due in the final release of Socialite 1.0.
You can try out Socialite for free right now if you have Mac OS X 10.5 or Mac OS X 10.6. The program has come along way in just the last six or seven weeks and we look forward to seeing what else the app brings.
What do you think about the state of list and retweet support in different Twitter clients? Let us know!
ALSO: Be sure to check out Mashable’s Lists on Twitter!
Reviews: Brizzly, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Google Reader, Seesmic Desktop, TweetDeck, Twitter
Tags: realmac, Socialite, twitter, Twitter Lists
HOW TO: Prepare a Thanksgiving Feast With Help From the Web
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It’s almost time for Thanksgiving, and that means family traditions. But what if your family doesn’t really have any, or you simply want to start your own new ones? This might be the year where it’s your turn to up the heat and put together a Thanksgiving feast. With social media and the web, we’re lucky to have everything we need at our fingertips, through videos, online invitations, and online recipe collections. Shoot, if you want to throw a proper Thanksgiving dinner and want to avoid squabble over the wishbone, you can even order Plastic Wishbones online!
Here are all the resources — recipes, videos, menus, and tools — you’ll need to put together your own traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
Inviting Your Guests
You could always go with the traditional standby means of inviting the family via telephone, but if your family is technically savvy you’ll want to utilize the newer tradition of creating a Facebook Event or sending Thanksgiving-themed eVites.
I’m a big fan of the clever electronic cards from SomeeCards.com, and they’ve recently added the ability to use them as invitations. If you want to get more into it, MyPunchbowl.com lets you do a full-course of Party Planning and have even recently integrated Facebook and Twitter into their product to offer new ways to send your invites.
Got a family full of iPhone addicts? Check out the iHost Thanksgiving app, which lets you send invites, as well as plan your menu, create a shopping list, make a budget and even helps you organize your recipes.
Decorations and Drinks
I recently threw a party without any tables or chairs, but if you’re more concerned about the comfort of your guests than I am, then you might be just as interested in the decor for your Thanksgiving festivities.
Etsy.com has a Thanksgiving section which has some cute, handmade decorations, like this 5-piece Thanksgiving Pom Set or this Felt Turkey for the kids. If you’re into a more standard look, though, check out the centerpieces offered at flower retailers like 1800Flowers.com. And if you want to get really fancy, both Country Living and Better Homes & Gardens have photo collections of creative table settings and decorations. Like arts and crafts? Then do-it-yourself with Thanksgiving decor guides from HGTV which has everything from centerpiece ideas to printable place cards.
As for drinks, Jones Soda will personalize bottles of soda for you and your guests for $16.99 per 6-pack or $29.99 for a 12-pack. For the brave they also offer special “Tofurkey and Gravy” flavored soda. More grown-up guests may appreciate PersonalWine.com, where you can get your own private label wine — you can choose the type of wine and design your own label. What says “Happy Thanksgiving” better than your own personal vintage?
Of course, if personalized wine is a bit too much, my Internet celebrity crush, Gary Vaynerchuk, host of WineLibrary.tv, has a section called GaryVee’s 2009 Thanksgiving Wine Picks to help you figure out which wine to serve with your meal.
What to Make and How to Make It
In families like mine, we never had family recipes passed down from generation to generation. As a kid, I didn’t watch anyone cook a turkey, because for all I knew, the turkey’s name was Butterball and it was delivered by a magical Thanksgiving stork into our oven, fully dressed and stuffed.
The first time I tried to cook a turkey, it required heavy-duty dishwashing gloves and a few grown-up tears. Now that the web is chock-full of turkey video tutorials, well, my gloves haven’t yet come off, but at least the turkey preparation doesn’t require group therapy afterwards.
One thing that the Internet is not lacking is an abundance of “Thanksgiving Guides,” with recipes, tips and videos for all of your holiday cooking and entertaining needs. Martha Stewart’s Everything Thanksgiving guide has in-depth videos and instructions on everything from how to make a turkey (good for the first-timers) to desserts, how to lay your table, and what do do with leftovers. AllRecipes.com has a Thanksgiving Traditions guide that offers tons of recipe and menu ideas as well as a Q&A section.
Epicurious.com offers a Thanksgiving Guide, as well, with recipes and videos on how to cook everything from turkey to pies. I’d call this the most helpful of all the guides, simply because they have everything for the 101 cook. If you’ve been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 30 years, you’re probably not going to need a website for moral support anyway.
The Food Network also has a Thanksgiving 2009 Guide that includes menus and recipes from all of your favorite chefs. They also have a section to submit your questions via video (or email if you’re camera-shy). Rachael Ray offers a collection of her favorite holiday recipes from the traditional — like mashed potatoes — to the original — like a spicy fajita nacho appetizer. Real Simple pitches in with a great selection of Thanksgiving lists, how-tos, and checklists. Don’t miss their how to guide on fixing common holiday problems.
If you’re a collaboration junkie, SpringPad has put together a Springsgiving page that unites food bloggers all in one place to share their favorite Thanksgiving dishes.
Videos That Will Help You Survive the Holiday
If you’re not home to watch the Food Network during the day, don’t fret, because Epicurious has an invaluable set of videos that teach you all sorts of cooking basics. The Food Network’s guide is also stuffed full of helpful videos. Another video gem is Food2.com’s How2 Holidays collection.
If you’re really committed to blowing tradition out of the water, then how about deep-frying your turkey? eHow.com has an entire series for that (as well as basting, cooking, and other topics). I’ve never deep-fried a turkey before, but after watching these videos, it seems a whole lot more gratifying than waiting six hours for an oven turkey.
iPhone Apps and Portion Calculators
Maybe way back in 2002 you had to be defeated in your independence and call Mom for pointers on how to pick out the right-sized bird — but not this time!
If by some kind of miracle of common courtesy, all of your guests have RSVP’d and you know the exact amount of people that you’ll be serving on Thanksgiving, then Butterball has you covered with their portion calculator (found right on the home page). You can tell it how many adults and kids you’ll be feeding, plus your preference on leftovers and whether you’re heavy or light eaters and the calculator will come back at you with how many pounds of turkey to cook, and how much stuffing it’ll take to fill the bird.
Now consider that everyone has RSVP’d and you have a mix of vegetarian eaters, traditionalists, and dieters all at one table. Disaster, right? Not when you have the web in your arsenal. Either of the interactive menu planners put together by Epicurious or Bon Appetit will help you figure out what to make.
And of course, if you have an iPhone, and it’s Thanksgiving — there’s an app for that. Don’t have a stove, microwave or standalone kitchen timer? No worries, the Chef’s Timer iPhone app lets you set up to four different timers at one time for all of your side dishes and turkey cooking needs.
Don’t want to waste countertop space with a laptop or your printed recipes? The Turkey Recipes iPhone app gives you a collection of recipes as well as the ability to submit your own and create a shopping list. Still trying to save counter space, but desperately need those video tutorials? Expert Video: Holiday Cooking offers video tutorials for recipes right on your iPhone.
And for all of those who couldn’t make it to your (totally tech savvy) Thanksgiving feast, you can just go ahead and tweet a few good TwitPics, or upload a new Flickr set and over-tagged Facebook album showing them all the fun they missed!
What other Thanksgiving tips can you share? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, iStockphoto, springpad
Tags: Food, List, Lists, thanksgiving, turkey
Sony Wants a Bite Out of Apple’s iTunes
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Sony is one of world’s best known brands when it comes to home electronics, gadgetry, and entertainment.
However, the landscape has changed in recent years. You can have the best media player around, but if you don’t offer users a place where they can easily get content for it, it won’t be competitive. And it’s been proven twice (first with the iPod, then with the iPhone) by Apple’s iTunes. Although a bit late to the game, Sony has now revealed its plans to launch its own iTunes-like online store, imaginatively called Sony Online Service.
The folks at Sony hasn’t given details about the store’s look or features, but they’ve said it will sell music, movies, books, and apps for mobile gadgets. Furthermore, it’ll also let users upload content (such as photos and videos) to their online accounts, making the store a cross between YouTube and iTunes.
The company also expects the new service to improve their faltering revenues. “We know we have to restore profit in our game and TV business. We must deliver sustainable financial results,” said Sony CEO Howard Stringer, speaking at a news conference at Sony’s headquarters in Tokyo.
Sony has been quite successful with its PlayStation Network, a digital content delivery service that lets users (33 million of them) download games and other content on their PS3. But Sony is a company with many blunders on the software side – for example one needs only remember the rootkit incident or SonicStage, the awful software that comes with the company’s MP3 players. After all those ups and downs, it’ll be interesting to see if Sony can transfer PSN’s formula to other areas.
Reviews: YouTube
Tags: itunes, sony, Sony Online Service
Twitter and Facebook Client Brizzly Now Open to All
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Brizzly is a web-based Twitter and Facebook client that has been gaining some momentum and buzz over the past couple months.
It has some slick features like being able to view photos and videos in-line in your Twitter stream, threaded DMs, and built-in photo uploading. It also recently added support for Twitter Lists. However, it’s remained in invite-only mode. That changes today though, as Brizzly is flipping the switch and allowing anyone to sign up for an account.
The company tells us that they’ll “still be in beta for a bit, which just means we’ll be continuing to experiment as usual.” One of those experiments, which launches today, is on-the-fly translation of tweets, which in theory lets you follow people who tweet in different languages and have them translated into your language of choice in your stream.
Brizzly is trying to compete in a very crowded space, but have an exceptionally strong team including Jason Shellen, who worked at Blogger with Evan Williams, and Chris Wetherell, who’s credited with having created Google Reader. Today, the company also announced they’ve added another ex-Googler to the mix, Ben Darnell, who was most recently working for Facebook via the social network’s acquisition of FriendFeed.
If you’re not yet familiar with the product, this video gives a brief overview:
Let us know what you think of Brizzly in the comments.
Reviews: Brizzly, Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, blogger
Tags: brizzly, facebook, social media, twitter
Google Testing a Permanent Search Sidebar
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According to Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search product and user experience, Google is looking to streamline its search experience. Using a jazz metaphor, Mayer explains that customers aren’t happy with the fact that Google’s search interface is too unpredictable (much like jazz, especially if you aren’t into it) at times.
To rectify this, Google is testing an overhauled interface for its main product, Google Search. The new interface, that’ll soon become available to a small portion of users, will contain a sidebar on the left side, somewhat similar to the one you get when you clicked on “Show options” after conducting a search, but far more polished.
The sidebar, pictured below (courtesy of Search Engine Land), lets you narrow your search to various types of content (images, books, news, maps etc.), includes various options (such as time frame for the results) and gives you suggestions for related searches.
It’s a big change for Google, a company that’s notoriously shy when it comes to changing its tried and true less-is-more approach, so don’t expect this to roll out for everyone very soon. However, as the number of Google’s various services grows and its search results start to vary more and more based on factors such as your geolocation, we like Google’s idea of adding some order and discipline into its search experience.
Reviews: Google
Tags: Google, Search, trending
Ballmer: Windows 7 Flies Off the Shelves
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Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has never been too modest about Microsoft’s sales numbers; in fact, throughout the Vista era he insisted that the new OS is doing great, selling better than any other Microsoft OS in history.
Now, he claims that Windows 7 is selling even better, which we’re inclined to believe based on the fantastic preorder figures. Speaking at Microsoft’s shareholder meeting, Ballmer said Microsoft has “already sold twice as many units as any OS in a comparable time frame.”
He then delivers on the grandeur that is expected from him, saying “Windows 7 is simply the best PC operating system that we or anyone else has ever built.” OK, Steve, it’s good, but I don’t think it’s revolutionary enough to be called “the best ever”.
Vista was selling well, compared to its predecessor, simply because there were more computers around than there were when Windows XP was new. When you’ve got hardware vendors selling laptops and desktops with your new OS, you simply can’t do all that bad. But with Windows 7, Microsoft really seems to have a winner: the reviews were great, the market share is rising, users love it, and everyone will probably soon forget about Vista, just as they’ve forgotten about Windows ME.
Tags: Steve Ballmer, Windows 7
#openwebawards: The Full List of Finalists
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The Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition, our annual contest highlighting the very best the web has to offer, is entering its final round. The 70,000+ nominees have been narrowed down to just 5 finalists per category, and you have from now until December 15th to pick the winners.
By popular demand, here is the full list of the finalists in each category. You can vote once per category per day. Get voting!
Vote for the Winners of the Open Web Awards 2009>>
Brand/Startup/Company/Agency
Best Brand Use of Facebook
Drivesafe.ly
Newegg
True Blood
The Children’s Place
Pet Society
Best Brand Use of Twitter
@Nhlblackhawks
@TrueBloodHBO
Crayola.com/promos/creativitycast
Digsby
@Livelifesolid
Best Brand Use of YouTube
TotallyTrucked
Coldwell Banker
Ucoz
Shane Dawson
Internet Killed Television
Best Corporate Blog
Blog.us.playstation.com
Grownupthinking.com
Blog.utest.com
@Sogopro (Sogopro.com)
Blog.okcupid.com
Best Non-Profit Use of Social Media
Thank a Soldier
To Write Love on Her Arms
Uniteddogs.com/stopkillingdogs
@SpiritJump
Wfp.org/1billion
Social Media Ad Campaign
Flowersophy
Sarah Ezekiel
Grasshopper.com/5000
Madmenyourself.com
Comcast4College
Social Media Agency
Lang-8
@Mryouthagency
Synhergyentertainment.com
Rocket XL
Pixelfarm
Social Media Gadget
Digsby
Addthis
Wetoku
ShareThis
Wisestamp
Facebook Specific
Best Facebook App
Pet Society
Fish Wrangler
MouseHunt
Farmville
Battlestations
Best Facebook Fan Page
Everythingisrent
True Blood
Big Prize Giveaways
Twilight
GirlsGuideTo
Best Facebook Game
Pet Society
Fish Wrangler
MouseHunt
Ghost Trappers
BattleStations
Most Creative Use of Facebook Connect
GirlsGuideTo
Pet Society
Digsby
Thegamersforce.com
Gaia Online
Media
Best Breaking News Site
CNN
BBC
AllKPop
@BreakingNews
Best Local Blog
LA Snark
Three Day Rule
StyleQuotient.ca
Manhattan’s Users Guide
BeChicMag
Best Local News Site
Everything Long Beach
UtahTweets.com
StreetMavens.com
The College Reporter
Fwix.com
Best Online Magazine
Autostraddle.com
Bikeexif.com
ArchDaily.com
EscapistMagazine.com
Smashing Magazine
Best Online Music Label
SliceThePie
OOiZiT.com
DFTBA Records
G-Unit Records / Thisis50
BumperTunes.com
Best Online Newspaper
Ionline.pt
Twittertim.es
The New York Times
MeeHive
Huffington Post
Best Political News Site
Demotix
The Young Turks
Tweetminster
Huffington Post
BBC
Best Site for Journalists
HARO
Overheard in the Newsroom
IJNet
Gameleon.net
NewsU.org
Best Site for Publishers
HubPages
Ucoz
BestThinking.com
DevHub.com
Pitchengine
Best TV Network Online
MomTV
Blip.tv
Hulu
G4TV
BBC
Mobile
Best Location Based Mobile App
RunKeeper
Gowalla
Foursquare
MomMaps
Google Maps
Best Mobile App
Drivesafe.ly
EBuddy
Nimbuzz
Viigo
Evernote
Best Mobile Based Twitter App
Movatwitter.jp
Gravity
Snaptu
Tweetie 2
Ubertwitter
Best Mobile Game
Glyder
Ramp Champ
Astraware Solitaire
Gowalla
Tap Tap Revenge
Best Mobile Music Site or App
Bandsintown
Midomi Ultra Music App
Pandora
Spotify
Last.fm
Best Mobile Travel Site or App
DealBase
V!VA Travel Guides
Zagat To Go
TripIt
Ontheroad.to
Best Social Network iPhone App
WhosHere
Tweetie 2
Tweetdeck
Peoplesound
People
Best Actor/Actress to Follow
@Sogopro (Hilarie Burton)
@TomFelton
@Crystalchappell
@Alyssa_Milano
@FeliciaDay
Best Blogger to Follow
Youtube.com/user/Loraandlayton
Worldasiderseeit.com
Pleasefindthis.blogspot.com
Youtube.com/user/MattG124
Orangejuiceandbiscuits.com
Best Celebrity to Follow
@Ivetesangalo
@Britneyspears
@Tommcfly
@Sogopro (Hilarie Burton)
@Donniewahlberg
Best Musical Artist to Follow
@Ivetesangalo
@Miyavi
@Tommcfly
@Collective_soul
@BritneySpears
Best Social Media Maven to Follow
@GIWAYNE
@Tornadoliese
@MariSmith
@Almitra
@BuzzEdition
Funniest Person to Follow
@TheSpoonyOne
@Serafinowicz
@Maureenjohnson
@Shitmydadsays
@Nostalgia Critic
Most Educational to Follow
@Mobilephone2003
Techforluddites.com
@Hotforwords
Esoriano.wordpress.com
Youtube.com/xxxjoelpolexxx
Most Inspiring to Follow
@Loraandlayton
@Paulocoelho
@Hilarie Burton
@Donniewahlberg
@Sogopro
Photos and Videos
Best Flickr Photographer
Dustin Diaz – Flickr.com/photos/polvero
Shadi Eideh – Flickr.com/photos/eideh
Chanelle Richardson – Flickr.com/photos/iamchanelle
Max Smith – Flickr.com/photos/mmaxwellsmith
Flickr.com/photos/mmitchelldaviss
Best Online Video Web Series
Internet Killed Television
Nostalgia Critic
Angry Video Game Nerd
The Guild
Ytwatchdog
Best YouTube Channel or Personality
Vlogbrothers
Loraandlayton
MattG124
ShaneDawsonTV
Shaytards
Flickr Photo of the Year
Flickr.com/photos/dailym/3769023686
Flickr.com/photos/mitziszereto/3904251985
Flickr.com/photos/luclodder/3807855559
Flickr.com/photos/khosey1/3676664858
Flickr.com/photos/mitziszereto/3840917582
Funniest YouTube Channel
Smosh
Loadingreadyrun
CardGamesFTW
Raywilliamjohnson
ShaneDawsonTV
TwitPic of the Year
@Jkrums – Twitpic.com/135xa
@Mitziszereto: Twitpic.com/jwghr
@Andyskib – Twitpic.com/i0q2a
@Meganminesinger – Twitpic.com/lcie1
@Collective_soul – Twitpic.com/7f8rx
YouTube Video of the Year
A Very Potter Musical
The Secret of the Sauce: Youtube.com/watch?v=tvZ6VW6fWwk
Neda Dying in Front of the Camera in Tehran: Youtube.com/watch?v=bbdEf0QRsLM
The Bag Heads: Quest for the Milk: Youtube.com/watch?v=pi1Tz6gfxh8
Surprise Marriage Proposal in Spain!: Youtube.com/watch?v=hg23WyUa1mI
Twitter Specific
Best News Source to follow
@BreakingNews
@Statesman
Tweetepedia.com
@Fingertipnews
@CNN
Best Twitter App
Favotter
Hootsuite
TweetDeck
Digsby
Favstar.fm
Funniest Tweet
@Kpereira
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Tags: openwebawards, owa
With Chrome OS, Google Intends to Destroy the Desktop and Microsoft
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Google stole the tech and media spotlight today as it revealed a mountain of new details about Chrome OS, the company’s new operating system due in late 2010. It is a completely different type of OS (we provide a summary of how) that eliminates the desktop and focuses on getting you on the web quickly and efficiently.
Now that we’ve had some time to digest Chrome OS and get information on all some of the details, it’s time to ask the big questions in order to understand if or how Chrome OS could change the world. What is Google’s eventual goal with Chrome OS? How will it affect Microsoft? And finally, what impact will Chrome OS have?
To explore those questions, it’s time to revisit the Google Revenue Equation.
The Google Revenue Equation Revisited
Several months ago, I revealed what I believed to be the Google Revenue Equation. My argument at the time was that Google Chrome OS should not be viewed as a direct competitor to Microsoft Windows, but as Google’s biggest attempt yet to push the world onto the web more and for longer.
The reason Google is pushing for society to use the desktop less and utilize the web more, I argued, was because of the Google Revenue Equation: Revenue = Amount of Time on the Web. After today’s announcements, I still believe that my equation is correct and that I hit the nail on the head with Google’s motivations.
As Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted to me in a reply today, Google wants the web to succeed and will do what it takes to make even more functional, useful, valuable, and enticing to everyone (consider this the Cutts Corollary to the Google Revenue Equation). Chrome OS is the company’s biggest step yet towards fulfilling those goals.
Google’s Key Goals with Chrome OS
With the Google Revenue Equation in mind, it’s easier to understand Google’s primary motivations for creating an OS based entirely off the browser. The more time we spend browsing the web, the more money Google makes. It’s that simple. Thus, Google’s primary goal is to get us on the web more.
That’s exactly what Chrome OS does: its interface is 100% web, thus you are always browsing if you’re using Chrome OS. Every app is a web app. Plus, Chrome OS loads in seconds, getting you on the web faster.
In order for Google to accomplish its goal of getting us on the web more, it has to eliminate time sinks and anything that distracts someone from surfing the web on the computer. Thus, one of Google’s goals is to destroy the desktop.
There is no desktop on Google’s new operating system, but that’s only the beginning. Google may only be looking to launch on netbooks next year, but make no mistake: it hopes to have a strong presence laptops and desktops everywhere within the next five to seven years. Not only that, but it hopes that the influence of Chrome OS is powerful enough to push all future operating systems to be more web-centric.
Microsoft Stands in the Way
The biggest obstacle standing in its way towards a web-centric computing experience is none other than Microsoft. The two have been locked in battle for years, but Google is now stepping onto turf that the technology behemoth has dominated for decades.
Here’s the thing: Microsoft is well aware of the Google Revenue Equation. It also knows that Chrome OS and its price point (free) aren’t in its best interests. Thus, Microsoft won’t play to Google’s game, leaving Google with only option: to destroy or fundamentally alter Windows. This is equivalent to gutting Microsoft and leaving it to wither away into oblivion.
Google is setting the stage for its biggest battle with Microsoft yet. The result of its Chrome OS bet will directly affect the fate of computing, the operating system, and the web.
What Impact Will Chrome Have?
Google’s intent is nothing short of a paradigm shift, one where the web is synonymous with the computer. It’s a process that will take years — decades in fact — but Google is patient and will wait for the Internet to become more accessible (and for Wi-Fi to be accessible in almost any location). The Chrome browser was a big push for a web-centric world, but Chrome OS is far more ambitious.
Google cares more about the browser becoming the OS than it cares about Chrome OS being the OS of choice on the computers of the world. When companies and people adopt its standards, Google wins. It’s the same philosophy behind Google Wave: provide a free, open-source software and focus on changing how we think of communication. In the case of Chrome OS, the focus is on changing what we expect when we turn on a computer.
It’s tough to tell if Google will succeed in its ambitious plan. However, it has a track record that cannot be ignored and, in our estimation, Google has already been instrumental towards society’s embrace of the web. Prepare yourself for the next era of the web, sparked by the fundamental philsophies behind Google Chrome OS.
Reviews: Google, Google Wave
Tags: chrome, Chrome OS, Google, google chrome, google chrome os, microsoft, trending
Zynga’s Next Facebook Game: PetVille?
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Oops, they did it again: popular Facebook games maker Zynga last month trademarked the name FishVille and promptly launched the game by that name less than a month later. This time Games.com reports it could be pets the social games giant is going after next, with another trademark filing on the term PetVille.
It makes perfect sense. In the same way that FishVille targeted rival company CrowdStar’s popular Happy Aquarium game concept, PetVille would neatly knock on the door of rival Playfish’s successful title Pet Society.
Zynga is perhaps best known for its wildly popular game FarmVille, but is clearly not content to rest on its laurels and is aggressively building out social games with similar casual mechanics and a reportedly impressive revenue stream from in-game currency sales. Just how big is the social games space? Big enough to prompt industry-leading video game publisher Electronic Arts to snap up Playfish for as much as $400 million.
With shorter development cycles and growing revenue streams, it’s no wonder the traditional video games industry is taking notice, as sales data from consoles and software continue to plummet. For many of the same reasons, the industry should be worried about Apple’s iPhone too.
Do you play casual games on Facebook? Have you ever spent real money on virtual goods?
Reviews: Facebook, pet society
Tags: casual games, facebook, farmville, fishville, petville, social games, Zynga
Twitter Launches in French
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Twitter’s translation project is rolling along rather quickly now. Earlier in the month Twitter launched in Spanish, and as of today, Twitter is now available in French.
The company took to their blog and penned a post in French to announce the news, which lets users switch their language to French from within the Settings area of Twitter.com.
Here’s a translated version of what Twitter wrote of today’s news:
“With the addition of the Spanish version of the site last month, many people have joined the conversations on Twitter. More and more people twittent outside the United States and we are now able to accommodate users of nearly 30 Francophone countries. It is now possible to change the language settings in French with the participation of translators who have helped turn Twitter into a platform for truly global communication.
The French twitteurs golds can already track people and companies they are familiar. Whether you attended or @ @ Lepicerie lopera for your gastronomic outings, you read @ lemondefr way to work or you listen @ theteenagers on the way home or you’re a fan of @ CanadiensMTL, there is a wealth of information useful to discover at any time.
To see Twitter in French, just check your settings and select “French” from the menu.”
Reviews: Twitter
Twitter Founder to Murdoch: Blocking Google Will Fail Fast
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Speaking at an event in London earlier today, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone addressed Rupert Murdoch’s plan to wall off his sites and prevent Google from indexing News Corp’s online properties. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he characterized the plan as a bad idea, saying that the speed of change on the web meant it would likely “fail fast.”
Instead of trying to “put the genie back in the bottle” and revert to an even more “ridiculously closed” model, Stone said Murdoch and co. ought to be thinking about how to make up lost revenue by embracing a radically new and open strategy.
Co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman joined in with similar sentiments: “I am sure that during the transition from horses to automobiles there were some people bemoaning the loss of horse transport.”
Them’s fighting words, and Murdoch would be wise to heed them. Do you think News Corp will go through with the plan to shut out the search giant? How do you think this will all play out?
Tags: biz stone, Google, News Corp, rupert murdoch, twitter, walled gardens
Oprah Ends Talk Show: Twitter Erupts with 8,000 Tweets Per Hour
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As you may have heard, Oprah is scheduled to announce during tomorrow’s show that she will end her talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in September 2011 to focus on her upcoming cable channel. The news came out earlier in the afternoon and it’s now spreading through Twitter at an astonishing rate.
Not only does Oprah now dominate Twitter’s trending topics across multiple terms, which is quite remarkable given the volume of New Moon noise, but Trendrr has alerted us to the fact that Oprah mentions, in just the first hour alone after the news broke, skyrocketed to more than 8,000 tweets.
We’ve embedded the tweets per hour Trendrr graph below as we expect this to be an ongoing trend through tomorrow’s official announcement.
Reviews: Twitter
Tags: oprah
HANDS-ON: Chrome OS Developer Version [Video]
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Today Google finally unveiled its long-awaited Chrome OS. Although the OS won’t be appearing on commericial devices for at least another year, Google has already released the source code for those willing to get their hands dirty and start playing with the project right now.
Because I like a challenge, I decided to build my own Chrome OS image (using the invaluable build instructions) and then screencast the results. Chromium OS is most certainly a work in progress and is very rough around the edges. Some of the coolest parts of the video demonstration at today’s Google event either aren’t available in the current build or will only work if you are using specially optimized hardware (I was using a virtual machine). Still, it’s exciting to see what Google has already created.
With that said, if you’re interested in seeing the OS in action in a non-flashy demo setting, check this out:
Obviously, Chrome OS isn’t much to look at right now, but the idea of having everything in the browser is a concept that might just make low-powered, lightweight devices really pop as a new device category. The potential is certainly there for something very, very cool.
Have you taken the time to compile and play with Chrome OS? What do you think of what Google is doing to try to redefine the operating system?
Reviews: Google
Tags: Chrome OS, chromium os, Google, google chrome
