Leslie Poston is a writer, social media guide and tech junkie, as well as the founder of Uptown Uncorked. This is part of her Real World Change 2.0 series.
If you’ve been watching the web the last few weeks, especially Twitter, you’ve seen a rapid rise in a new trend: microfunding for charities and causes. The last few weeks have seen charities leveraging microdrives on a global scale via social networks like Twitter using third party donation tools.
This is nothing new, Beth Kanter has been tapping the social media universe for charity for some time on behalf of organizations like the Sharing Foundation, and Mashable’s own Pete Cashmore led the “well that Twitter built” campaign not too long ago.
As the idea of simple, fast microgiving takes off, more and more charities and causes are seeing the benefits of this new way to help. From The Salvation Army to The Staley Foundation and local food banks, people are using tools like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and more to help others.
The most recent campaign, and one that is doing wonders to drive awareness, is the WellWishes Twitter campaign using TipJoy and Twitter. Between microdonations and corporate matches of certain goals, the campaign expects to raise as much as $5000 or more to put toward building wells in impoverished areas so that more children can have clean drinking water.
How can you help give money to an existing cause, or drive money to a cause? That’s easy, either hook up with an existing charity’s microdrive or start your own. Just choose your favorite microfunding method from the list below, and for less than the cost of a trip to your local coffee house you can give a little to help someone else out in the new year.
1. TipJoy
TipJoy - The current darling of the microfunding set on Twitter, all you need to give using TipJoy is a Twitter handle or email address and a PayPal account. The company expects to add other payment methods in the future.
TipJoy has a friend and follower network to add a bit of a social aspect to your giving, and to see who your friends are giving to as well. You can also add a TipJoy button to any website to encourage those not on social networks to give as well. This is the method currently being used for the WellWishes and Salvation Army Red Kettle online campaigns.
2. ChipIn
ChipIn - Another popular method of microgiving, ChipIn offers a way to put a giving widget on a web page or blog entry. This widget tracks the goal amount, the donations received and how close you are to your goal.
ChipIn works with Sprout, so you can use one of their widgets or use Sprout to make a fully customized widget of your own. Currently, payments made to ChipIn come from PayPal only. This is the preferred method of giving for foundations like The Staley Foundation.
3. Pledgie
Pledgie - This service has been around since 2007, flying under the radar for most. It also uses PayPal as the source for monetary transfers, and does not require an account with Pledgie to use. Pledgie offers badges for your blog or social network to notify people of your campaign, or a mass email system. They do not yet offer a Twitter notification.
4. FirstGiving
FirstGiving - This tool allows you to set up a FirstGiving pledge page, which accepts donations from anyone, regardless of email or Twitter account. FirstGiving is an option for people who don’t want to have their campaign tied to PayPal, as they accept credit and debit card donations. However, being able to accept regular credit cards without PayPal means that there are fees associated with FirstGiving. With other options, charities and causes receive the entire donation amount.
5. Fundable
Fundable - This donation engine also sets up a website you can drive people to with links, emails and badges. What makes this one unique is that it refunds people their money if your goal is not met. This in turn inspires charities and causes to work harder to get the money donated within a certain time frame (theoretically). It also means that you don’t get their check or PayPal with your donations at all if your goal is only partially reached.
6. Donors Choose
Donors Choose - The Donors Choose organization is directed entirely to teachers and education. It’s a unique way to microdonate school supplies and other learning materials and money for school needs, based on what teachers ask for. As an added bonus, you receive thank you letters from the kids you helped once the donations are completed.
7. SocialVibe
SocialVibe - I’m including SocialVibe here because it is the most micro of all micro funding sites. Users of SocialVibe don’t have to donate money at all - they donate ad space on their social networks and participate in the SocialVibe network and corporate sponsors do all of the donating.
It only takes a moment to put a Social Vibe widget on your MySpace, Facebook or other network page or blog, and click throughs are rewarded with donations to the causes you pick.
8. TwitPay
TwitPay - This microfunding application uses a Twitter-only payment system to generate funds. This application is in its infancy, and currently offers only an IOU system for payment. Once they get fully rolling, however, they will require both the giver and the receiver to have TwitPay accounts, something that TipJoy and ChipIn don’t do.
With so many options that make it easy to give, how will you give back?
Leslie Poston is a writer, social media guide and tech junkie. She conducts social media training sessions to help you bring your company into World 2.0 using social media and technology and is the founder of Uptown Uncorked.
Interested in more resources? Check these out:
- “DIGITAL CHARITY TOOLBOX: 50+ Ways to Get Your Give On”
- “HOW TO: Start a Local Support System Using Social Media”
- “20+ Charity and Fundraising Tools”
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shapecharge
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
The Categories:
Be a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox Extension
Ticket Giveaway to SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CA
Mercora Renames Itself Social.FM
StyleFeeder Gets $1M for Social Shopping App
Quick Poll: Which Social Network Has The Best Ads?
Affiliate Summit Social Media 2008 is in Two Weeks
Wendy Boswell stays on top of Web search and social media trends at About.com. You can catch up with her via Twitter.
FriendFeed is a social media feed aggregator that makes it easy to follow many different individuals’ various social activities on the Web all in one convenient place, instead of jumping from service to service (and having to create new accounts ad infinitum!) to see what the people you’re most interested in are doing.
It’s basically a continuous river of information that you can use as a virtual water cooler of news and content, but it’s also interactive – you’re encouraged to comment on other people’s stories, “like” something that resonates with you, and more. If you’re looking for something that is a one-stop solution for a variety of different content frames: feed readers, micro-blogging, images, etc, then FriendFeed is a good fit.
Let’s look at a few tips for both beginning and more advanced FriendFeed users that can help you make this service as useful as possible.
FriendFeed: Basic Tweaks
Signing Up
Signing up at FriendFeed is easy. Just come up with a username, and then start adding all the services you’d like to trickle through your FriendFeed stream.
Adding Services
For the most part, you won’t need specific service URLs, just usernames (Facebook and LinkedIn both require specific feed URLs, which is somewhat tedious). Once you have your different media outlets all plugged in, it’s time to play with your FriendFeed settings, found by clicking on the Account link.
Settings
This is where you can specify how you want your FriendFeed stream to be seen, decide if you want email notifications, or set up IM pings to your Google Talk or Jabber account for specific activities: a comment on your post, activity from friends, etc.
Following People
In order to get the most out of FriendFeed, it’s important that you find people to follow, and then comment on what they’ve shared. Interact. Become part of the FriendFeed community to make it a more intuitive, useful service. The more you interact, the more FriendFeed will be able to personalize your friend recommendations and your FriendFeed stream will get more interesting since you’ll be learning from other people.
Finding Friends
How do you find friends? Click on the Friends tab, and you can use your email contacts to initially find people to follow. Once you have shared a few things on FriendFeed, you can click the Recommended tab on the Friends page for people FriendFeed thinks might be of interest to you.
Friend Organization
You can also find interesting people by joining FriendFeed “rooms” – there’s a long list at http://FriendFeed.com/rooms/search. Rooms are basically private chat rooms you can use to talk about specific topics: holiday recipes, social media, the Super Bowl, etc.
Once you’ve got a good list of people that you’re following, it’s time to get organized. In order to make this as meaningful and structured as possible, divide your friends into Lists, found on the FriendFeed Favorites page. Personal and Professional are already laid out; you can create more groups as you need them.
FriendFeed is also a sneaky way to get around joining every new kid on the social media block, because you can see what people are doing whether or not they’re on FriendFeed. You can do this with the Imaginary Friends feature, found in your Friends settings.
FriendFeed: Advanced Tweaks
Filtering Information
How do you cut down the FriendFeed noise to signal ratio? Can you limit which services you see? Say you don’t want to see every mundane (I like soup) Tweet, or every Facebook status (Joe is working) update. You can limit your FriendFeed information feed by using the Hide feature, a simple yet effective way to instantly filter what you want to hear from a specific user or service.
Getting More Traffic
FriendFeed is also a great way to get more traffic to your personal site or blog (if that’s what you’re looking for). Since your feed is part of the FriendFeed info stream, once people read it they have the ability to give it a thumbs-up, comment, etc. If they like it, that particular piece of content gets shared with all THEIR friends, and on and on. It’s a snowball effect.
Creating Specialized Groups with Search
FriendFeed has added a Search feature recently, which (obviously) enables you to find specific information, but also to create a personalized group of people who are writing exactly about what you want to read. Add this to your FriendFeed List, say about “google innovations,” and you’ve just created an extremely up-to-date source of information.
Comments
Follow the comments you (and the people you follow) make to find new people to follow. Sometimes the conversations on FriendFeed are the best ways to discover new content or find new people to track.
Desktop Clients
If you don’t feel like having FriendFeed take up browser space, you can use a FriendFeed desktop client to stay on top of everything. So far, there aren’t a lot of candidates in this space, but Alert Thingy, Twhirl, and Eluma are worth a look (for more reviews of FriendFeed desktop clients, read My Search For The Perfect FriendFeed Desktop Tool [List].
Sharing with a Bookmarklet
If you’re more of a sharer than a talker, then the FriendFeed bookmarklet is right up your alley. This simple tool allows you to share anything from all over the Web directly to your FriendFeed.
FriendFeed: A Useful Service
FriendFeed, while known mostly for its capability as a social media aggregator, also provides myriad opportunities for connecting with other like-minded people – as well as deep, well-connected, almost real time research that would be difficult to replicate anywhere else.
It’s simple to set up, easy to personalize, and I’m sure we’re seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as FriendFeed innovations; for instance, I’d love to see the ability to customize real-time views of my FriendFeed streams with specific topics or cluster different rooms into one rich feed.
What’s been your favorite use for FriendFeed so far? Let’s hear in the comments – or at FriendFeed:
Pete Cashmore
Adam Ostrow
Adam Hirsch
Stan Schroeder
Mark Rizzn Hopkins
Sean Aune
Sharon Feder
Tamar Weinberg
Karen Hartline
Brett Petersel
you can find me at http://friendfeed.com/wbsowell.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Mashable Rocks: Connect with us on FriendFeed
FriendFeed Launches Search
FriendFeed Recommendations? Who Are You Likely to Like?
FriendFeed Gets $5M, Launches to the Public
Former Googlers Team Up to Launch FriendFeed
FriendFeed Brings Twitter Back
FriendFeed Launches Rooms. Moving Towards Semantic Web?
Chris Lynn is a social media specialist, working with clients from the Marketing, Online Advertising, Mobile, Consumer Tech, and Social Media industries. He also edits socialTNT, a blog on new media, marketing and PR.
Over the last couple of months, Yahoo Buzz has slowly built up its features, seemingly setting its sights on top player Digg. Likewise, StumbleUpon has also upped the ante, adding new features to further court the growing social browsing market. While Yahoo Buzz may not yet be “Digg”-able, will it trip over StumbleUpon? Let’s take a look!
First Impressions
Quick glances at the splash pages show big difference on focus.
Yahoo Buzz is definitely a news-oriented site. The topics resemble those you’d find in a newspaper, with Entertainment, Sci/Tech and Politics being the default categories. Clicking on “More” also gives you access to Business, Health, Lifestyle and more. It’s also easy to browse the “Up & Coming” news stories.
StumbleUpon’s splash page can be a little overwhelming–too many topics across the menu bar and way too many images. Not really sure where to start.
Sorting based on interest doesn’t really clear the clutter.
Although sorting on list view cleans it up a little, StumbleUpon’s overload is just too much to handle. This round goes to Yahoo Buzz.
Shareability
More and more news sites are incorporating the Yahoo Buzz and Stumble chicklets for easy sharing. But what happens if the site doesn’t have integrated sharing?
From the Yahoo Buzz splash page, you’ll need to scroll down the page to find the “Submit a Story” button. Yeah, you have to go back to the Buzz page and copy and paste the link. The original web toolbar, the Yahoo Toolbar, does link back to the Buzz Page, but it doesn’t include a “Submit” option. LAME!
StumbleUpon, on the other hand, has a fully-integrated Stumble bar. The bar allows you to review sites, tag them, share with friends or look at other reviews of the site. Translation: Uninterrupted browsing!
Submitting to each is pretty easy. Both offer similar forms: Title, review/summary, category, etc. StumbleUpon stands out here by offering more than five hundred categories, as well as tagging.
By The Numbers
According to company spokespeople, Yahoo Buzz saw 7.7 million unique visitors to StumbleUpon’s 6.3 million unique visitors in October 2008. Based on traffic alone, Yahoo could be considered the winner–but don’t judge too quickly. These are social sharing sites. Looking at the number of stories or sites submitted tells us a different story.
In October 2008, Yahoo Buzz averaged roughly 20,000 stories submitted per day. Even though it has one million users less than Yahoo, StumbleUpon’s community shared roughly 35,000 per day in October. This landslide in sharing is a testament to StumbleUpon’s easy-to-use toolbar. With more than half a million more submissions per month, Stumbleupon is the true winner in this category!
Final Thoughts
Overall, we prefer the look and feel of Yahoo Buzz. Its clean design and easy-access menus make it easy to find news stories. By narrowly defining the types of stories and defaulting to Entertainment, Tech and Politics, Yahoo Buzz is definitely in the running to appeal to a mainstream audience. Plus, with Yahoo finally linking its properties to create a social network, there is no need to create another profile.
That said, StumbleUpon’s encyclopedia of topics and highly engaged community make it a great place to discover new sites that might appeal to niche interests. If you have a personal blog, add StumbleUpon bookmarking chicklets. Because the community is based on a narrower-scope of interests, you are more likely to attract its active members.
Put simply: Yahoo Buzz is like Target and StumbleUpon is your local boutique. You might go to Target to get the larger items, but you’ll always end up at a boutique if you really want that hard-to-find item.
Which do you prefer and why? Let us know in the comments!
Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, bns124
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Yahoo Buzz: Upcoming Competitor to Digg or Google?
StumbleUpon Adds New Look to Profile Pages
Yahoo Buzz Introduces Widgets and RSS Feeds to Take On Digg
Yahoo Buzz Is Bigger Than Digg, According To comScore
Yahoo Buzz Gets More Social and Continues its Assault on Digg’s Mainstream Ambitions
Yahoo! Tech Buzz Game Tests Wisdom of Crowds
Sneak Peek: Yahoo Buzz
Imeem went mobile with its launch of an application for the Android-based T-Mobile G1 smartphone last month, and now the company has complemented the release with some special extras.
The most intriguing addition is location-based streaming, which the company says features “popular music in the user’s city.”
Also, artist recommendations, along with data like biography and discography, are now made available according to names you specify as favorites. And did we mention there is access to a holiday music station? Oh yes, that’s there too. Now you can experience a festive winter season wherever you are - at your PC or roaming your neighborhood with your G1.
Finally, for Madison Avenue and the rest of the advertising world, brands can serve folks on the go with banner placement much like they’ve been able to on the desktop.
Everything can be seen with an upgrade or a fresh download of the imeem Mobile application.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Imeem Adds EMI’s Music and Videos to Catalog
Imeem Brings Streaming Music to Android and Google G1
Imeem Partners with Sony BMG to Legally Stream Music
Imeem Secures More Funding
Imeem Adds Universal Music to Complete Streaming Catalog
Imeem, Snocap Hook Up
Imeem Gets Full Length Horror Film: Debuts Next Week
The last couple of years have had the questions of when and how the world of Big Media would embed itself in the burgeoning social media space recycled over and over again.
And as you can gather, we’re still not quite at that dream state, where everything is available, sharable, discussable, and yes, even mashable.
So where are we, then? Will utopian (tele)visions for Facebook and MySpace soon come to pass? Or are we far from perfection? Will we ever get there? Looking at these fifteen or so official Big Media-borne devices, there’s still a considerable distance left ’til we see heaven.
Mixed Signals
Facebook is in a thorny position when it comes to media, we think you’d agree. The company has managed to assemble a pretty solid set of homegrown social software, and has done much to pioneer the third-party network application boom. Yet it has no MySpace Music or MySpace TV of its own. No major media-heavy awesome to speak of.
Which is certain puzzling, given the fact that Web users have been yelling the where-we-want, when-we-want refrain for a long while now, whether it’s on Hulu, YouTube, or, indeed, on Facebook.
Here are several items Big Media world that can be found on Facebook today. You’ll notice most applications are just gadgets ancillary to the brands which deliver them:
FOX - Yes, let’s start off with FOX. MySpace, after all, is part of the Fox Interactive Media umbrella, so it sholudn’t be expected that the company or any affiliates would establish a strong presence on Facebook. Nonetheless, FOX does boast a “News Video” application through Buddy Media. It’s neither terrible nor worthy of any applause. It just…is.
NBC - There are only two items from the NBC universe which have grabbed small but reasonable attention on Facebook. Both are games: “What’s Your iCue?,” and “Gladiator Battle.” No video offerings from the company’s news divisions, and no titles from NBC’s weekly primetime lineup. Which is disappointing. Very.
ABC - This broadcaster offers widgets for most all of its popular shows. Names like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “LOST,” “Dancing With The Stars,” and “Ugly Betty” are all present. Yet none feature the full library of content associated with each production.
It’s quite well known that ABC has remained largely independent and solitary in the Web video world, serving much of its online audience at its main website. The company has claimed that to be its preferred method of delivery. But the “be everywhere” motto being carefully exemplified by other broadcasters may draw ABC to rethink its strategy. We hope so, anyway.
CBS - The most outstanding CBS option on Facebook at present are: an AOL Radio application that CBS has partnered with; a fairly basic “Survivor: Gabon” widget; and a service dubbed “Breaking News Headlines.” There is also an item from CBS Sports called “Sprint Fantasy Pick,” which highlights weekly choices for the NFL schedule.
Suffice it to say that CBS needs to get going with the premium media delivery if wants to transition from “dabbler” status to something with a vested interest in tapping the social media space to full(est) effect.
The WB - Though the WB and UPN television networks merged some ways back to form “The CW,” there has still been an effort to resurrect the WB’s back catalogue and introduce new Web-only shows to eek extra value from the brand. Interestingly enough, this fourth or fifth place network (after CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC, in no particular order) has delivered what I find to be a fairly good experience with its Facebook application. Its competitors could take lesson.
Seriously, the only thing negative to say about The WB at this point is that there should be more content to choose from. The necessary groundwork has been laid, however.
MTV - Listing some 7,500 monthly users, the “MTV Music Videos” application, currently in beta, grants users access to some 16,000+ music videos.
While the browsing experience can be considered clunky, the wealth of material provided is substantial. The developers promise that improvements are on the way, too. Improvements = good news.
ESPN - Games and team picks are where ESPN devotes its attention on Facebook; no radio or video highlights to speak of. The most utilized item in the ESPN playbook is “No Limits Moto Jump,” from ESPN Arcade and Skyworks.
How unfortunate. ESPN is one of the most valuable names in all of media, and the best the company can come up with is a motocross gimmick. They can do better. A lot better.
Comedy Central - The only official item released by Comedy Central to the Facebook application directory is “Indecision 2008 Games.” Which might be a tad past its expiration date.
In fact, the names that emerge from the Stewart-Colbert world that are relatively popular have been produced by non-affiliates. “Watch Colbert,” and “Daily Show News” are the sole items that promise video content. You might say that’s unnatural.
PBS - Yep, PBS is on Facebook! Besides a “Teacher Search” application, it boasts a video preview and podcast service for its trademark “Nature” programming. We’d like it if PBS were to do with this application what the broadcaster has done with things like Frontline. Put it all up on the Web for all to see. Wouldn’t that rock if PBS had a enthusiastic followers on Facebook? On Facebook!? Heck yes.
Are there any Facebook applications with ties to Big Media that you don’t see here which you enjoy? Are there any apps that you haven’t seen that you’d really, really want to see? Share your picks in the comments!
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Facebook Apps: iGoogle, LivePets, Vuvox
Our Second Facebook App is Here!
Federated Media Partners with Facebook Apps
Google Adsense Network Taking Over Facebook Apps?
Flickr Facebook App is Now Available
eBay Launches Facebook App
Last.fm Facebook App Launches
There are three kinds of items users of Microsoft’s Office application suite share with one another more than anything else: Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.
Yet precisely how such files are being transferred between co-workers as well as companies and their clients isn’t so straightforward. Email attachments are popular, though also quite cumbersome. Alternatively, you could employ Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace channel. But that might not be an ideal route for everyone involved.
Now, to complement the service’s Outlook addition, there is YouSendIt for Office.
Quick and Easy
Launched for use with Windows Office versions 2003 and 2007, YouSendIt’s direct implementation allows for fast 2GB-large transfers with just a few clicks. You can drag-and-drop or right-click your way to the finish line, or do things via the more traditional Send menu within the Office taskbar.
All essential safety features from the YouSendIt service are included in the plugin, whether it be password protection, file expiration, and certified delivery notices.
No Mac Option to be Found
The only unfortunate aspect to the software release we found is Mac Office users have not been given an equivalent package to play with. We’ve gotten word that YouSendIt will determine whether or not to put a Mac-compatible version on the roadmap once they see the PC adoption rates. For now, either Windows XP or Vista (32-bit only) will have to do.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
YouSendIt Raises $10M
YouSendIt SiteDrop: Embeddable File-Sending
YouSendIt Gets Another $14M Check In the Mail
Share Media Directly from iPhoto with YouSendIt Plugins
FilesTube Launches Community Tools
7 Ways to Send HUGE Files: 25X Bigger than Gmail
Microsoft Office Live Workspace Coming Soon
Maybe you’re a fan of Google’s Grand Central phone controller. Maybe you also happen to be a Mac addict. So how do you match those two loves into one? Vocito, that’s how.
Savvy to your Mac OS X desktop and things like Address Book, Automator, and the third-party engineered QuickSilver, Vocito manages your management of the multiple phone numbers in your life within slick fashion. In a manner of speaking, it makes easier a process that’s already been quite easy. Way easier, you might say, even if its job is technically more complex.
You could of course use Vocito much the same way you would the browser-based application - albeit doing so within a more Mac-like enclosure. Nothing stops you from heading straight down the usual road.
Open Source Power to the Nth Degree
But power users in the Mac realm might consider that a sheepish use of code. Address Book integration is convenient enough, yes. Yet Vocito’s support for Automator and AppleScript actions, as well as Quicksilver commands, takes things to another level. Really, if you wish, you can manipulate the application without drawing your hands away from your keyboard.
For the most part, Vocito lives a pretty non-ostentatious life on your computer. So long as you can tolerate the presence of a favicon-sized menu bar button sitting astride your clock, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and audio control features, it’ll be at the ready while keeping largely out of the way.
And that’s presumably how many Grand Central users choose to operate the service, making Vocito an ideal candidate for extending your virtual phone switchboard to your Mac desktop. Wonderfully enough, the download is Tiger- and Leopard-compatible with both Intel and PowerPC support. It’s also entirely open source.
Limited GC Beta Access Puts a Cap on Vocito’s Debut
The only immediate downside is that Google is holding Grand Central under a limited beta restriction, disallowing any immediate sign-ups, which I imagine a good number of folks interested in Vocito will be looking for. A forum has been established for people to voice their thoughts and concerns.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Google Maps Offers NYC Mass Transit Directions
Comedy Central Launches InDecision2008, a Political Spoof of the Elections
YouTube Pulls Down Comedy Central Clips
Google’s New Strategy: Spray and Pray
Google Introduces Video Sitemaps
Google Could be Sued for Anti-Semitic Clips on YouTube
Swivel Makes Tasty Data
Mobispine, the mobile services developer already responsible for introducing a $1.99 self-titled iPhone application for RSS news junkies, has debuted a white-label option for wireless carriers to deliver to subscribers seeking classic MMS utility from their devices. Just short of an extension of the iPhone’s standard SMS software, Mobispine’s offering is something that just might fly.
Media Sharing Apps Aplenty, But Still No Real MMS
As iPhone users have known since the App Store’s launch, there are already many ways to send MMS (multimedia messaging service) data from the device to Web users. The Mail and optional Facebook applications are just two avenues. And a pseudo MMS service for iPhone, called Flutter, gets iPhone users into mobile-to-mobile.
But white-label - and ultimately carrier-branded - MMS software is something Mobispine seems to be breaking new ground with. True MMS software just does not inhabit the iPhone world. And if any operators are to convince Apple of the efficacy of bringing such an option to the platform, it is the selection of wireless carriers around the world who are partnered with Apple that will make it happen.
Is the White-Label Angle the Golden Ticket?
Nothing’s certain, mind you. Though Mobispine says it is “confident that operators will find the service easy to use and profitable with an opportunity to expand messaging usage, improve subscriber retention and increase revenue,” adoption is something that has no guarantee. But things in the world of SMS and MMS are very much about uniformity. Mobispine appears to offer the latter option.
We’re eager to see who bites first.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Mobispine Launches a Mobile Feed Directory
Mobispine & Telephone Facebook Apps
FeedM8 Offers Mobile RSS for Bloggers & Readers
World’s Simplest iPhone App
FeedDemon Releases Version 2.5 Update
iPhone to Launch in Germany on T-Mobile
3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008
Like many entries in the world of SaaS, Bizroof, a company offering a steadily growing CRM package, practices the art of incremental improvement, a concept popularized by Google, et al., which takes a semi-experimentalist approach to product development.
This past July, for example, Bizroof had its official launch, and only a month later implemented support for Yahoo’s location-based service Fire Eagle. This week the company is introducing users to new cash-flow analysis and sales automation tools; a whopper of a bonus for managers seeking that all-in-one fantasy.
And users will be content to know that the money management options provided are similarly well-design as the previously standard set of software. Ease of use is the order of the day. If your cost analysis job isn’t so rigorous as to require some serious machinery, these extensions will likely suffice for the day-to-day.
Layout is straightforward and segmented into view options for reports new and old as well as edit fields for money brought in and money sent out. Really, if you have just a semblance of understanding about accounting, you’ll learn it in seconds; a few minutes at most. (Account owners can also change currency settings from US dollars to euros to pounds to yen.)
For Bizroof to deploy these things to the company’s stated membership of 3,800, regardless of their use of free or paid accounts, is quite a treat, too. Just know that a Basic plan will limit you to 20 cash flow reports per month, whereas the $120/year Pro level will grant you access to 5,000.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Bizroof CRM Adds Fire Eagle Support
Bizroof Joins a Saturated CRM Market
New Google App Provides Free Ad Management
LinkedIn Seeks Warrior to Fend off Facebook
What is Web 2.0? Devil’s Dictionary Defines It!
Revolution Money Raises $50 Million
Revolution Money to Launch Facebook Application?
Plugins are great. As anyone who bothers to make their online lives enhanced with conveniences knows, browser extensions, also known as “add-ons,” are a fantastic way to streamline tasks.
At the same time, installation of such software can be annoying. The act of restarting Firefox, IE or Safari is simply a no-go in some situations. Fortunately, the invention of the “bookmarklet” has made inroads in the market over the past several seasons. And because we’ve seen a number of good ones crop up as of late, we thought we’d take a look back to see where we’ve come from and present our “best-of.” Be sure to share your favorites, too!
Delicious
Delicious - Along with Google Gears or Greasemonkey, Delicious is one of those essentials that are hard to do without once you’re hooked. And while it sports a full-featured plug-in for power users, the services offers a bookmarklet as an alternative. Aesthetically speaking, I happen to find it much more appealing than its “big brother.”
Faviki
Faviki - Another social bookmarking service, Faviki is one of those services that becomes more valuable the more invested you become with it. Some features are plain as day, while others are there when you’re least expecting you’d need them. Of course, the service’s bookmarklet only does so much, but its inclusion of a smart tagging feature is reason enough to register an account.
LaterLoop
LaterLoop - So you want to bookmark a bunch of stuff to access when you’re cut off from the Web, and would really enjoy the ability to read that material on your laptop or mobile phone or whathaveyou. LaterLoop helps you do this. Naturally, there are some discrepancies between the service’s plugin and the bookmarklet, but you pretty much end up with the same outcome.
Tip’d
Tip’d - Tip’d is a kind of Digg-like startup built exclusively for people interested in finance. Which, in the current economic climate, counts pretty much everyone under the sun. A bookmarklet allows users to submit links when away from the service. Which is a good thing, considering that Tip’d does not and likely never will achieve the ubiquity that its technical inspiration has managed to reach.
BitLet
BitTorrent? Check. No-plugin and no-software downloads? Check. How much better does it get than that? Not very! BitLet is pretty darn great.
Lizzer
Links are what make the Web as incredible as it is. No question about it. So why not empower Web users with a superfast method to search for and establish links with sites and services and individual webpages that can help enrich their own publications. Lizzer does exactly that. If you’re a prolific blogger and you copy and paste hyperlinks from your journeys online with so much regularity that it really becomes a tiresome practice, this will take the edge off. You might even say it’s a godsend.
Iminta
A FriendFeed-competitor (which also has its own bookmarklet), Iminta behaves pretty much how you’d expect a lifestreaming service to. It incorporates dozens of services into a singular view of what you like and what you do online. Some reviews, including our own, regarded its behavior as more detailed control panel to that of FriendFeed. Is that a good thing? You decide. If you can’t get into the waxing and waning hype over FriendFeed and want something else to chew on, this is a pretty darn good option to dabble in.
YouBundle
A service described as a Mahalo competitor for its aggregate, editor-influenced data collection process, YouBundle is a bit hard-edged compared to the beveled softness espoused by many Web 2.0 ventures today, but it’s certainly got some technical chops to show users. Oh, and it’s got a bookmarklet, too!
Zhiing
This one is about social networking in the real world. Found someplace online that you’d like to visit today or tomorrow with friends, be it for lunch, dinner, drinks, or dessert, or simply just to hang out at? Zhiing helps you get information passed around quickly, whether its by email or to friends’ mobile phones.
Bubble Comment
So there’s a webpage you’d like to share with friends or family, but you’d like to add some witty commentary atop the standard supply of content. (It might be a news article or a comic, for example.) If you can muster up a brief video explainer, Bubble Comment is a near perfect complement to what it is you’re sending along. The service allows users to input URLs on site if they wish, but a bookmarklet is provided for folks who can’t get away from the camera.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Blummy - Bookmarklets, But Better
Google Maps Now Support hCard Microformats
Photagr: Social Bookmarking for Images
Sneak Peek at Otavo, The Intention Engine
7 Ways To Create Your Own Digg Clone
11 Tools to Help You Save Sites for Reading Later
Searchles Launches Social Bookmarking Site, Provides MySpace Codes