The rooms are very easy to set up. Just click the ‘rooms’ tab on the top right of the friendfeed page. A useful option is the ability to make the ‘room’ either private or public. I think it has great potential as a collaboration or Brainstorming tool. It’s also fairly easy to invite current friendfeed users, or contacts from other services. The Bookmarklet also makes it very easy to share valuable content within your groups or your main friendfeed.

The basic idea behind friendfeed ‘rooms’ is to set up ‘mini feeds’ of contextually relevant information which encourage interaction between the ‘room’ members. Allowing other like minded members to comment and share as well. I believe the intention is to create “mini micro blogging communities”, but this quickly becomes like being stuck in a tiny elevator with 50 people talking across and over each other. Just as with friendfeed, ‘rooms’ need filters or some other method of information management.

I really like the concept behind friendfeed. Although sometimes, it’s a bit like a time draining event horizon. I have found A LOT of great articles, videos, photos, posts and people. The thing is, it’s too noisy. The information comes very rapidly, too rapidly to manage.

Social Aggregators are still in their infancy, and I’m sure, with time we will find many more uses for them. Until then, it remains one big clusterfuck of social media circle jerk.

1) Built in Media Sharing

Flock has built in support for Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook, Piczo, Picasa, YouTube and more.
That makes it really, really easy to share everything from pictures to videos to links to text. Just Drag and Drop from the Media Bar or right-click to send to email or to a blog.
You can even carry photos, videos and text, wherever you go online, right on the Media Bar or on the Web Clipboard. This feature alone saves me so much time, allowing me to drag and drop media at will, making working online much easier. Another very cool feature is “Media Streams”, if you find someone who has media you like online - Just click on the the small star next to “Media Streams” to subscribe. You will then be notified every time they upload new media across various social sites like Flickr, Facebook, Youtube and others. You can also search photos and videos on Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Truveo or YouTube right from within Flock UI. Just click the arrow to scroll across the various search results across the Media Bar, without it affecting your tabs.

2) Built in Social Networking

Flock has built in support for LiveJournal, MySpace, FaceBook, Blogger, Delicious, Twitter and more. Once you configure ALL your social Network accounts, Flock automatically populates your People Bar with all your friends. This makes it a cinch to receive and share media with friends across various social networks. You can also drag and drop photos, videos and text from the web or the Media Bar to share with your friends in the sidebar. Flock will also notify you when any of your friends upload new media with an orange Media icon next to their profile on the People Sidebar. All you have to do is click on the logo, and the new media will automatically be loaded into the Media Bar or Web Clipboard.

3) Built In Blogging Support

Flock has a One Click built in blog post editor. You can drag and drop pictures, videos and text right onto it, and start editing your post within Flock. This is a feature I LOVE! The blog editor allows you to post to multiple blogs across multiple platforms, including self hosted blogs.The Flock blog editor has all the standard features of other popular free blog editors. Below are some of the blogging platforms supported by Flock.

Blogger
Blogsome
LiveJournal
Typepad
Wordpress
Xanga
Self Hosted Blogs
ATOM
MetaWeblog
Moveable Type

4) Built in RSS reader

Flock has a handy built in RSS reader right on the sidebar of the UI. It also has automatic RSS feed detection and a one click subscription button. If the site has a feed, Flock will tell you by highlighting the RSS button. The built in RSS reader works great to organize and share your feeds, just email to friend or blog it with just one click. As of today, I have not imported the mother-load of feeds to my Flock browser. I will do a follow up post, and let everyone know how that works out.

5) Enhanced Search and Bookmarking Functions

Flock has built-in one click search and bookmarking enhancements, which makes it simple to add, edit and manage favorites and bookmarks. Just click on the orange star on the UI to bring up the Favorites and Bookmarks Side Bar and categorize the current site.Click on the star twice to edit Favorites and Bookmarks It also has a great folders feature for categorization. Tags can also be used to find or organize sites with similar characteristics or in similar groupings. Another VERY helpful feature is the Live search results from various sources.
Live results are generated as you type from: Amazon, Craigslist, eBay , Favorites, Technorati, Wiki, Wink People, Yahoo, Ask, Google.

Since Flock is based on Mozilla/FireFox, it is compatible with most of the important add-ons and plugins. So far I have installed and tested the following Add-ons: Stumbleupon, Mixx Bookmarklet, GBookmarks and several others. For a full list visit this link:
To give Flock a try download here:

Disclaimer: Yes, I like Flick this much. I have no incentive or motive, other than wanting to share it with others.

Others, with a bit more internet prowess, accessed the information via AP , Google News, You Tube or other forms of RSS feeds. But those of us active in the Twittersphere, were receiving updates in real time. Thanks to LaunghingSquid, we had not only Twitter updates, but also videos and pictures

It’s no wonder print is on that horrible decline. With information exchanging at this rabid pace, who the hell is willing to wait a whole day for news? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love to chill on Sundays with my coffee and my NYT. (Yes , I roll like that).

Check out some of the Tweets, Videos and Photos here

http://twitter.com/laughingsquid

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/sets/72157604458841560

I have to confess, I fiend for the Twit, I love Twitter, I can’t get enough of it!
That being the case, I have to ask myself ,what is that important on Twitter that I have to have it on a PermaTab on my Firefox browser?
It reminds me of watching MTV. I mean the old school MTV that actually played videos all day.There was something so hypnotic and addictive about sitting through those 25 shitty videos, to see that 1 kick ass Beastie Boys video. But even that got old really fast.

Twitter is the same to me, because half the stuff that is tweeted, I don’t really care about. Either, because it’s not relevant or because it is some abstract reference to an inside joke between friends that I just don’t get or care to get.
But this brings me to my point, We need to have a better way to organize our followers and friends.

I really hope with all the wonderful apps. on deck for Twitter, that someone can develop a way to categorize friends and followers. Possibly, something like Twitter channels or stations, based on interests. Or, If we had the option to group friends and followers by tag based categories and sub categories. Anything to allow us to tame the crazy beast, that’s taking over my life.

With the popularity of Twitter growing ,this is going to be become more and more of a need.

This will be a 3 part series of posts. In the first, we will cover all of the buttons on the Excel toolbar and what they do. The second will discuss various uses for each of the buttons/features and a more detailed analysis of algorithms’ and techniques used by MSN to gather the data for this toolbar. The third will discuss various uses and combination uses with Google Adwords editor.

Keyword Extraction
Extracts commonly used keywords from a given website address, which allows the user to see what keywords are in popular use on that site. Great for competitive analysis and finding new keywords.

Keyword Suggestion
Enables quick generation of a large list of relevant keywords from an initial list of Keywords entered. Works something like the Google Suggestions or Yahoo.

Campaign Association
An algorithm option under Keyword Suggestion. Keywords are suggested based on association and on competition/ advertiser’s keyword bidding behavior.
Another great option to find new, niche keywords.

Contained
An algorithm option under Keyword Suggestion above. Keywords are suggested based on past user searches that contained those keywords.

Similar
An algorithm option under Keyword Suggestion above. Keywords are suggested, which are similar in context to other keywords used on the World Wide Web.

Search Buzz
Returns the top keywords by vertical market, for the given time period. Two keyword trend research options are offered Date Ranges available: past 1, 10, 30 or 60 day period or a custom range

Monthly Traffic
Allows the user to look at monthly historical and future, forecasted query counts for the given keywords. Date ranges available: past data for 1, 3, 6, 12 or 24 month period forecasted for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months

Daily Traffic
Provides the user with daily query counts for the given keywords. Date ranges available: past data for 1, 7, 10, 30 or 60 day period — or you may specify a time period.

Keyword Categorization
Input keywords, then the algorithm suggests a category based on the Microsoft Contextual Taxonomy.

Geographic
Provides location information of searchers for specific keywords (user can specify country, state or city) about the input keywords within a set time period. Date ranges available : past data for 1, 7, 10, 30 or 60 day period — or you may specify a time period.

Demographic
Provides demographic information on searchers (by gender, age group) about the given keywords within a set time period. Great research tool to use for a PPC Demographic targeting tests. Date ranges available : past data for 1, 7, 10, 30 or 60 day period — or you may specify a time period

Advanced
This feature allows users to set the algorithm parameters for the features to suit their preferences, algorithm or needs.

Options
This feature allows users to change general settings, KSP server settings and algorithm Settings, to suit their preferences or needs.

Monetization
This feature allows users to gather KPI (Key Performance Indicators) Monetization Information for the selected keywords. This feature has two sub-features: Monetization and Vertical KPIs as described below. Date ranges available: past day, week or 30 day period.

Monetization KPI
An option under monetization above. This feature provides KPI information about clicks, impressions, position, click through rate, cost per click, and match type within a date range. Date ranges available: past day, week or 30 day period.

Vertical
An option under Monetization above. This feature returns KPI Monetization Information for selected verticals and keywords within a date range. Date ranges available: past day, week or 30 day period.

Top Spiky Keywords
Returns the keywords whose trends are sudden and spiking (i.e. not overall popularity, but demonstrate flashing and surging popularity). Similar to Google Trends , but still has a long way to go. Date Ranges available: past 1, 10, 30 or 60 day period or a custom range.

Top Frequent Keywords
Displays the keyword trends for the overall most popular keywords. Date ranges available: past day, week or 30 day period.

Keyword Wizard
The Keyword Wizard button assists users in implementing all applicable features available. Wizard through the program in order to set up a working keyword profile.

This tool would be a lot more useful if MSN could manage to scrape up a little more than 10% market search share. Because the reality of it is, not only does MSN hardly provide enough traffic, but the traffic they do provide is extremely inconsistent.

It fluctuates week to week with no rhyme or reason. Their interface is constantly running at the speed of molasses. And their customer service is practically nonexistent, and that’s with a dedicated rep. Now, with all that said and out of the way, I like the tool. It’s genius is that it integrates right with excel. Granted, MSN tool looks much cooler than Google Adwords Editor. But, Adwords Editor is sooo much more useful in day to day PPC management and development than the MSN tool.

Although used in combination, they add a powerful tool to your PPC war chest. (And if anyone from Google Adwords Editor Team or MSN Ad Intelligence team is reading, why not steal the others idea and develop a tool that incorporates the great research and historical data features in the MSN tool, with the practical and useful features for creating, editing and manipulating Google Adwords account data with Adwords Editor. ; )

RSS is my friend, without it I could never stay current with the 200+ feeds I subscribe to. But besides just aggregating feeds from my favorite blogs, I have found several other cool uses for my RSS reader, which allow me to save both time and money.

The RSS reader is a great place to find new content. From ideas for linkbait to images for your blog post. With the right feeds and settings the possibilities are endless ,but in the meantime, here are a lucky 13 to keep you busy.

1 -

Here is a RSS mashup on Yahoo Pipes that makes your boring old Digg RSS feed into a SUPER Digg rss feed. It adds category information, submitter information (with a link to the users page), Digg count, number of comments, etc..

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=_Dj0DgMi3BGIx3_Sp2IyXQ

2 -

Here is a Yahoo Pipes mash up that works with Digg, Delicous, Reddit and slahdot. With this one you can filter and search by keyword, user profiles , and tags.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=GGZDQ1e32xGMXWKzXqIxGw

3-

This pipe enables you to monitor what the world is saying about your brand, company, product or url. It checks Google Blogs, Technorati, IceRocket, Blog Pulse, Yahoo News, MSN News and Google News

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipes.popular?page

4-

Here is a simple Yahoo and Google News mashup , which allows you to filter and customize the feeds.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=1nWYbWm82xGjQylL00qv

5-

The idea behind this mash-up is to find questions that aren’t getting answered on Yahoo Answers and also helps you filter the results to make finding new content easier and faster.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=8rNEOVjd2xGieN8Vdrq02Q

6-

Combine your facebook status with blog feeds, news searches, twitter, last.fm flickr and youtube.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=7Jqm__RE3BGGJIWUyjUFzw

7-

A combination of New Yorker, New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair feeds. This pipe also allows for customization of all the results.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=1qj9XFW32xGgtAairuymrA

8-

To create a mashup for ANY RSS feed, check out this tutorial on building a really easy RSS filter with Yahoo Pipes.

http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2007/08/a_simple_yahoo_pipes.html

9-

Get notified of the BEST deals before the sell out.

Subscribe to a category on craigslist, ebay or other time sensitive shopping sites to find great deals first. Subscribe to specific items for sale or categories to find GREAT deals on everything from clothes, to electronics. I personally have used this to buy some IKEA furniture for about 75% off, a 24″ ViewSonic Flat Panel Monitor and several other items. Saving over $1k!!

Heres a link to an RSS Craigslist Search Script to filter your feed results.

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001440.html

Here is a RSS / Yahoo pipes app called Craigslist price watcher.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=9gMLgKK52xG6PNm8jwtvUw

10-

Finds deals from all major deal sites in US… Fetches deals simultaneously by running parallel threads… Sorts deals based on publication date of the deal (latest first)… Usage: Enter one word (e.g., dell) or an Exact Phrase (e.g., Core Duo) per filter

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=_E8FgV_42xGWa5pfZVUMqA

11-

Webpage-to-RSS Pipe generates RSS from any webpage which doesn’t have native syndication. It utilizes a data mining service called Feedity ( www.feedity.com ) to dynamically build the RSS, and then only return unique items. This pipe accepts the URL of the source webpage for which the feed is to be rendered, and it returns a valid RSS for reuse in other pipes. This pipe is designed to be used as a modular sub-pipe in your own pipeline. Clone and reuse!

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=NlNQKdO62xGAq1ZgZoQMOQ

12-

Track the latest Stumbles on StumbleUpon. Use your RSS reader to track your friends or those you are a fan of on StumbleUpon. Simply find stumblers whom are active and share the same interests and subscribe. This allows you to always stay ahead of the curve in the never ending pursuit of quality content.

13-

Don’t find a mashup, filter or feed you like? Go ahead and create your own. Check out Yahoo pipes and either start one from scratch or build onto an existing one.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Check out this PowerPoint presentation I found on Google. It is entitled - Social Media -2007 Web Managers Workshop- by: The World Bank-US Government

It was presented to conference of Government webmasters and IT professionals earlier this year.

The presentation starts off friendly enough: “To encourage All Govt. Staff to use RSS readers to more easily monitor Government Properties online.”

Then it starts taking a darker turn when the Government starts to express how very scared they really are of the power of social media. So scared in fact , that they are providing their employees with tips on Social Media Optimization or better said Social Media Manipulation. How to’s on inserting themselves into the social “conversation” to manipulate and drown out any content they deem inappropriate. I believe they are walking a very fine line by encouraging employees to consciously and artificially drown the social space with propaganda. And they should be put on blast on all Social Media spaces to make sure to out the Government moles placed there solely to bury content or vote down videos on Youtube.

According the The World Bank and US Government Presentation :

“A Successful Social Conversation is:

· Authenticity

· Passion

· Trusting Staff ( Accidental Spokesperson)

· Putting Spin on Hold ”

· Putting Spin on Hold???, WTF, Is this one of the rules or pillars I missed?

And the presentation even goes on to encourage Government employees to submit videos to YouTube, and edit Wikipedia. Yes that’s right you read that right , the presentation put together by the Govt. and World Bank , encourages its employees to post videos to YouTube and edit Wikipedia on Govt. and taxpayer time.  I’m damm sure they are not going to post anti government messages. (Remember the article where the Govt. was outed for editing wiki?) I mean for a corporation to do this, even though its a bit slimy I can deal, but for the Government to instruct its webmasters to purposely subvert the will of the people in the social space is BULLSHIT! 

I mean shit, here it is, plain as day, the government sanctioning the manipulation of OUR social space.

Now, some might think it a leap to go from encouraging edits on Wiki to sanctioning manipulation.

Well I am one of the ones that say no its is not such a big leap, because how many of you think these Govt. employees are going to go back and post videos on the casualties of war in Iraq, or documentaries about the suicide rate of Iraq veterans when back home(which happens to be about 80-120 /week), or submit an article to Digg about how General Patrues and the surge are working out dandy. No, they are going to post videos purposely designed and fabricated to drown out the other videos, posts and content the administration doesn’t like.

They are going to post Pro Government propaganda and pollute our bandwidth with the worst kind of spam, Government Spam!

I mean the presentation even highlights how the social media apace is causing them to lose control of their image. (See slide 21)

It’s not like I didn’t know that Big Brother was watching us, but I just gives me such an icky feeling to read it and see it detailed like this.

Also pay close attention to the slides detailing where the government employees should go to monitor the opinions, posts, videos, podcasts, and profiles related to this administration and The World Bank.

Technoratti, Google Blog, Delicous, Wiki, etc….

Look familiar, yes I’m there everyday, for hours sometimes. If this PPT is available publicly, imagine what’s being done covertly to track and subvert anti government posts, videos, etc. And what’s being done to gather and monitor those found to be associated with anything even remotely anti government or against the grain of their message.

Look at slide # 23- 29 it upset them just to have the holes in Paul Wolfowitz socks written about. So imagine what levels they are willing to go to artificially insert them selves into our social space to drown out more serious messages about the statistics and reports our Government is not telling us about. What this presentation is purporting they do, goes at the very core of the beauty of the social space. This is the worst kind of Spam, Uncle Spam!!

URL’s to Presentation:

Your document is publicly viewable at: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dqs5h9k_104dk9gcn

Or Check out where I found it.

www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/Social_media_government_web_managers.ppt

Here is another presentation as well which has some interesting .gov link stats, and discusses Social Media, but not as dark and Orwellian as the previous. This one is focusing more on how the Govt. wants to use Social Media and the web to deliver personalized content.

usaservices.gov/ppts/BevFeb2007.ppt

If you want to try and cool experiment , go to Google, limit your search to file type ppt, and search for a subject. You’ll be astonished by what you find sometimes. And they same goes with other file types.

I guess someone should have told the webmaster of USA.Gov to use disallow if he didn’t want Google to crawl it!!

FunWall

Author: Slide

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Leave videos, edited images, and interactive notes on your friends’ walls.

Moodget

Author: LabPixies Ltd.

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Share your feelings with your friends using this fun, social gadget.

BuckDrop

Author: E-junkie

APIs used:

OpenSocial

E-junkie allows you to send and receive funds via Google Checkout and PayPal.

FotoFlexer Live

Author: FotoFlexer

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Allows you to import images from popular online photo albums and edit pictures.

Visual Bookshelf

Author: Hungry Machine

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Build a virtual bookshelf on your profile. Review books, see what your friends are reading and who else is reading a given book.

Flixster

Author: Flixster

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Flixster allows you to rate and share movies with your friends.

Emote

Author: RockYou

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Show the world how you’re feeling through Emote.

My Music

Author: Qloud

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Play your iTunes music and create playlists.

Fan Site

Author: Protrade

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Root for your favorite team with your friends and get the latest sports news.

Songs iLike

Author: iLike

APIs used:

OpenSocial

Create playlists and listen to your friends’ songs on iLike.

Big ups to TheLabPixies for making kick ass widgets and social apps.

And for more examples of OpenSocial Apps check out:

http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/examples.html

Here is the Google OpenSocial developers Guide. Chock full of good stuff.

http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/docs/javascript/index.html

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bijSL5KR558&feature=related]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jZmvFJwek&feature=related]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3h6ROs__II]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pVxqgt5jTs&feature=related]

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