17 Ways To Use Twitter



Twitter can be actively used as a tool to push out messages that capitalize on the attention you’re receiving from other users. We're talking about self-promotion and marketing. This involves active user engagement.

More Social Media Predictions for 2009

1. Peter Kim: Social Media Predictions 2009
   
2. Junta42: 42+ Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions for 2009
   
3. WebMetricsGuru: 2009 Trends in Social Media
   
4. Network Solutions: My Horrible Predictions for Social Media in 2009
   
5. Social Media Today: 7 Social Media & Web Analytics Predictions for 2009
   
6. Social Media Explorer: Social Media Target Strategies For A Better 2009
7. Beyond Banner: Ten Social Resolutions for Marketers in 2009
   

Driving Change: Selling SharePoint and Social Media Inside the Enterprise

Businesses and established organizations are vastly different environments than the Web 2.0 social networking-centric universe.

10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2009

  "Social media" was the term du jour in 2008. Consumers, companies, and marketers were all talking about it. We have social media gurus, social media startups, social media books, and social media firms. It is now common practice among corporations to hire social media strategists, assign community managers, and launch social media campaigns, all designed to tap into the power of social media

Internet Explorer 8 in pictures

As Microsoft counts down the final days to when it feels that Internet Explorer 8 is ready for public use, you can take a look at what's coming in this slideshow of IE 8's first Release Candidate. Click on the image below.

Linja Zax replaces 'multitouch' with one finger gestures

Multitouch gestures on the iPhone are simple and really easy to use. Mobile touch-screen devices that don't have it, however, can make Web browsing a harrowing experience. Enter Linja Zax, a new project that's trying to give users an easy way to zoom in and out of Web pages (and potentially other UI elements) with one finger only.

Similar to the "wax on, wax off" mantra of Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, this simply involves moving your finger in a circular motion. Going clockwise zooms in, while counterclockwise zooms you back out. In the demo, which I've embedded at the end of the post, you can see how this would be useful to let users select from multiple pages, which would remove the need to add a dedicated on-screen button.

5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter


Back in 2006 when Brian wrote the Viral Copy report, Twitter didn’t even exist. Now Twitter is a force that any serious web publisher needs to reckon with in order to gain maximum exposure for content. Read the article here.

Holographic Dics to Store 20 Times More Than Blu-Ray

Blu-ray technology out-does DVD for one reason only: the discs store more information, so you can fit a higher-resolution movie file in the same physical space. That's a great thing now everyone and their dog has an HDTV. But a new disc material will allow ridiculous amounts of information--perhaps 20 times as much--to be stored on a disc, holographically.

LeapFish

LeapFish, a multi-dimensional search aggregator, claims to have a search engine, that promises to conveniently surprise users with new-found search information as it combines the best of the web in a single search.

Type in a search term and LeapFish instantly delivers a plethora of relevant results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN, along with blogs, news, Q&A, videos, images and shopping results from major online destinations including Ebay and YouTube, all conveniently organized in a single, easy to use interface.

Mixx

Mixx is your link to the web content that really matters.

MADS

MADS delivers a full suite of products including: MADS for Operators, to create, manage and monetize mobile inventory; MADS for Agencies, to plan, book and optimize campaigns; and MADS for Advertisers, to track real-time campaign performance analytics and reports.

MADS unlocks powerful advertising opportunities for brands and creates new revenue streams for operators and publishers across all mobile channels including: Mobile Internet, SMS Push/Insert, MMS Push/Insert, Mobile Video, Mobile Games and Applications, Idle Screen and Ring Back Tones.

Mobile and Wireless Predictions for 2009

Here's an interesting list of what's predicted in the world of mobile computing.

Twitter + Google Maps = Twittervision

David Troy has built a nice Twitter/Google Maps mashup that shows Twitter updates on a world map, as they are posted (with a delay, depending on traffic levels):

The green and orange buttons let you indicate whether or not you like the particular update. I don't know what their effect is, though. (Any ideas?)

It also provides an alternate view, where you can see where a particular Twitter user has posted from.

Lastly, in true Web 2.0 spirit, he even provides his own Twittervision API. An API for an application built on the Twitter and Google Maps APIs. 

The Future of Mobile Computing

Future Phone: With Android, Google is betting that the future of computing will be handheld.

Carol Bartz...new CEO at Yahoo



Yahoo Inc. is expected to announce that its next CEO will be Carol Bartz, former head of software company Autodesk Inc., according to a source involved in the search.

iPhone Nano...this June?



According to Chinese-language Economic Daily News a chip manufacturer is going to receive microchip orders from Apple sometime in March which must mean that we should see an iPhone Nano sometime around June. Right? It must. Maybe.

Technology's next frontier: In-car computing

Cell phones and TVs converging with the Internet? That's so 2008. The next big tech trend may be the marriage of computer technology to your car or truck.

Xtranormal

Create your own animated feature using only Flash and typing skills. Select from a range of characters, drag direction icons into your script, and type in your dialog. You can even select different accents for your characters. Currently in beta.

Kakuteru

What do you get when you combine blogging and lifestreaming? You get Kakuteru, a semantic blogging mashup with funny name. The service imports your activity streams from FriendFeed and combines them with longer articles you write yourself. After you set up your Kakuteru site, its URL can then be hidden behind a domain name of your choosing so it appears as if it's your own blog.

Palm Pre Preview: Simply Amazing


Read the review of Palm's new touch screen phone.

Web 2.0 Awards

Here is a listing for the 2008 best Web 2.0 sites both new and old.

Plurk



Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length.

Updates are then shown on the user's home page using a timeline which lists all the updates received in chronological order, and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Users can respond to other users' updates from their timeline through the Plurk.com website, by instant messaging, or by text messaging.

CES: The Earphones That Stay Out of Your Ears



One of the few new exhibitors at CES this year is S1 Audio, which is attracting attention with “necksets” that project music from your shoulders up to your ears.

Windows 7 beta ready to go



Windows 7 is going into public beta, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas late on Wednesday.

VAIO P Series

Sony has finally introduced its highly anticipated netbook, the much rumored 8-inch VAIO P series laptop, dubbed the Lifestyle PC. The new ultraportable VAIO laptop has been designed to offer users a computing alternative that will provide them with Internet access and quick access to multimedia files. See Sony for more information.

Cisco Adds Social Networking To Its Forte


Two years after it first started courting big media companies, Cisco Systems will finally launch a new product to help these companies harness the power of social networking and connect their brands to fans.

What Can The Book Business Learn From iTunes?

The media is in a squabble over the death rattles coming from the book publishing industry. Yes, it's in dire condition. But a new business model might bring readers back. Call it the Free Lunch model.

Which Mobile Phones Deliver The Real Web


Before 2007, using the internet on your phone would make you want to kill yourself, if you were dumb enough to believe the crap splattered across that tiny screen even was the "internet." But the combination of increased bandwidth and better mobile software means that more phones really are promising to deliver the real internet, in living color.

Sitelauncher, A Firefox add-on


Firefox extension Site Launcher lets you replace your bookmarks toolbar with an overlay window of links that can be pulled up at any time using a simple keyboard shortcut. You pick which sites you want on the list, and a one-letter keyboard shortcut is given to each.

How to downsize your social network

Tied to too many social networks? Time to do some house cleaning.

Cisco's home-networking push

Cisco Systems, which builds the gear that powers the Internet, is making a big push this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with new products that will help consumers move digital media around their homes.

Xobni

Outlook plug-in maker Xobni has raised a $7 million series B round of funding led by Cisco. Previous investors from the series A funding (about $4.1 million) also participated in this round.

Xobni is an e-mail add-on that analyzes your in-box to give you context around the people you communicate with. Recent updates also correlate against social sites like LinkedIn to provide even more information on people.

Can Wind Save Steel

Wind power was recently ranked in a comprehensive research study as the top energy alternative in terms of environmental impact and total power potential.

Japanese Private $1 Billion Li-Ion Battery Investment Shames U.S.

While Li-ion battery makers in the US are going cap-in-hand to the government in search of federal aid to keep up with foreign companies, it's been rumored that Nissan and NEC are about to invest around $1 billion of their own capital into making batteries for electric cars.

Guy Kawasaki Gives A Reality Check



He's been a Silicon Valley insider for a long time and his latest book, Reality Check, doles out tons of great advice for entrepreneurs. In this video Guy talks about all sorts of stuff like why he would rather have Twitter than a cell phone.

Facebook sues Power.com


The Power.com service lets users view activities on all of their social networks at once. It also marks up pages to include additional functionality in a way that Greasemonkey users are familiar with.

Eric Schmidt's View on the Future of Business

How the Internet will change the nature of competition, innovation, and company operations.

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Almost Out of a Job


Imagine an online encylopedia anyone can edit — and no one can run. With the calendar running out on 2008, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's sleaze-drenched cofounder, nearlylost his seat on the board. Who's in charge here?

Voike

A voice blog and social media mash-up that allows you to record your voice, music, sounds words, pictures and thoughts by phone, post it in on your Voike account, blog or social networking environment like Facebook. You can also email these voice messages to others, send them to someone's phone and share them with others on Voike.

Wishpot



Wishpot is a free social shopping service that makes it easy to save and share interesting things you find in online stores.

Items are easily collected online or from stores and organized using simple online lists. Lists and items can be kept private or shared with others. You can collect and discover products you like, recommend your favorite stuff, share and explore gift suggestions or ask for opinions and advice.

Jumptags

Jumptags.com is a revolutionary Web 2.0 social bookmarking web service for collecting, storing, sharing and distributing web bookmarks, notes, RSS feeds, contacts, and much more. You can import your IE and Firefox bookmarks, besides those from del.icio.us.

Microsoft planning layoffs in January

Mark January 15 in your calendar: Rumors of layoffs at Microsoft peg that as the day the bad news will come.

Mobile Revolution: You're Holding It In Your Hand

The Future of Mobile Apps

There is a fascinating discussion about the future of mobile apps going on over at Change.org. Nathanial Whittemore started it all with a hopeful and visionary blog post on how mobiles will be changing the world.

Howard Rheingold Shares Thoughts about Robots in Our Future via his blog

Spanish researchers have published a study about the potential future impact of robots on society. They think that the potentially widening gap between the first and third worlds will cause a technological imbalance over the next 12 years. One of the researchers said that ‘just as we depend upon mobile phones and cars in our daily lives today, the next 15 years will see mass hybridization between humans and robots.’ So they predict that robots will be around — and inside — us.

Is Google Big Brother?


Internet search engines know a lot about their users - maybe too much. Do we really care?

Five predictions for 2009

Take a look and see what you think of Don Reisinger's forecast for 2009.

Name that tune


Scenario: You got a fat iTunes gift card for Christmas and you're loading up on music... but there's that one song that you're dying to download that you just can't remember the name of, or even who sings it, for that matter.

You can try searching for lyrics -- if you have 'em straight -- or you can let your voice do the searching. Check out Midomi, an ingenious website that lets you sing or hum a few bars of any song to figure out what it really is. It is, of course, totally free.