Search

In my effort to fulfill my new year’s resolution for being more organized (and responsible) in 2008, I’ve taken to a handful of Web-based services to help me out. Skydeck is one of those services that has helped me keep my daytime minutes at bay, especially considering how often I’m on the phone speaking with companies I cover here on Mashable. A new update to Skydeck will make its service a great deal more helpful–and there are some other updates you may find useful as well. For me, the biggest feature upgrade is the ability for Verizon (NYSE:VZC) (NYSE:VZ) , AT&T (NYSE:SBT) (NYSE:T) and T-Mobile users to see their phone call updates every day, instead of only seeing the call log that’s updated on your billing statement. This removes the lag time that Skydeck users previously had, meaning you don’t have to calculate in your head when peering at your Skydeck toolbar, which gives you an at-a-glance view of your minutes and texts usage for the month. Other feature upgrades include the ability to search your extended network, which takes the social network of Skydeck a step further into the online space. This is also a significant update, as it expands on the networking capabilities Skydeck is building into its service, showing you a very real and practical view of your action-oriented network, based on the people you’re contacting on a regular basis. For Skydeck, this particular search feature works by recommending the mutual friend that best knows the person in your extended network that you’d like to meet. To push the potential of Skydeck’s networking capabilities further, a new set of APIs will hopefully encourage developers to create more useful mashups that take advantage of your call third-party call records from services like Skype and Vonage. I’m pretty excited about the new set of APIs, as the inclusion of call records other than those we consider in the traditional sense will give users a more complete view of their real social network. If you’d like to check out the new Skydeck features, click here for your invite request. Be sure to mention Mashable to get to the head of the queue! href="http://www.tradevibes.com/company/profile/skydeck">Skydeckcompany profile provided by href="http://www.tradevibes.com/">TradeVibes ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Skydeck API: Turn Your Phone Bill Into a Facebook Application10 Ways to Use Skydeck (Like Spying on your Girlfriend)Evoca Records your Skype CallsHow About a User-Generated Guinness Book of World Records?Snocap Signs Deal with Sunset RecordsIt’s Official: Firefox 3 Sets a Guinness World RecordSwap Mobile Trading Cards. Win $1000 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Xakasha launched late last year as a 3D timeline creation tool for chronicling your life–or anyone else’s life or series of events for that matter. Aside from the graphics and overall experience of flipping through images shared on a Xakasha timeline, the service itself didn’t have a large number of differentiating factors that could help set it apart from other timeline creation services. A recent upgrade and a renaming of the service is changing that for Xakasha, as it becomes a timeline creation site that dips into multiple social media sources in order to build out a given timeline. Under the new name of Kronomy, this 3D timeline creation tool, currently in private beta, is making the process easier and faster for its users.    Kristen Nicole’s life path    make your own   show details I’m particularly interested in seeing if Kronomy will be taking some of its new features towards the application of outside services–perhaps geo-location people searches or chronological search results, but we’ll have to wait to see if anything of this sort develops from Kronomy’s recent updates. What you can do now, however, is take advantage of the private beta invites Kronomy has shared for 500 Mashable readers (once you’re in, however, you can invite more friends to join). Use “shareyourstory” as the invite code when signing up. Below is a Q&A session I had with Michael Hirschbrich, founder of Kronomy: Kristen Nicole of Mashable: So is kronomy replacing xakasha? Hirschbrich: Yes, Xakasha was a prototype for our initial development. Once we had funds to develop the prototype, we upgraded and redesigned the initial product to make Kronomy. With Kronomy, we updated 60% of the features including: Flickr API, supporting the top ten video sources, customized embed system, new dynamic 3D surfing, adding events is much more automated as is inviting friends – just to name a few. The biggest thing is the ability for users to embed their timeline anywhere. We also have over 1000 celebrity timelines for our users to explore and add events into their own timeline – for example you can add a movie you watched on your 16th birthday with your childhood friends into your timeline and share it with them. Kristen Nicole: for kronomy, how does it work, aggregating images from various applications, without authentication?Hirschbrich: We have two sources: one is authenticated through users’ applications such as Flickr. Another source is a default free picture database. We plan on incorporating additional photo APIs and feeds in the next few months prior to our launch. That’s all we can say right now… but we have some cool features coming in this regard. Kristen Nicole: how are you hoping users will take advantage of Kronomy? Hirschbrich: 95% of our memories are lost over our lifetime, Kronomy helps people remember their events and associations with people, places, etc. Kronomy aims to be a visual time machine for anybody, place or thing, which can be embedded anywhere. For our users, Kronomy puts memories into time ­context - it makes it simple and fun to organize, find and share them chronologically. Kronomy provides a community memory of events from a variety of sources including social networks, photo and video sharing sites, et al. It interconnects lives, users can literally jump from their timeline into other’s timelines and discover other lives. We want to help users keep all their important memories and events in one place that is easy to share and fun to watch over their lifetime. In addition, we provide entertainment for users as they can explore celebrity timelines and in the future any significant ... [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Xobni, the plug-in for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Outlook which manages contact information in a more extensive and arguably much more convenient process, has unveiled a new feature which allows for easy integration of LinkedIn network data. Contact information housed within one’s LinkedIn profile can now be accessed from directly within the utility. Through LinkedIn’s APIs, Xobni is able to glean basics like a contact’s photo, job title, or current employer. It also naturally shows a link to the full profile page of a listed individual. This is of course a logical move for Xobni, particularly at this stage in development. The plug-in was launched to the public only 45 days ago, and its ability to encompass as many options for its users as possible helps to increase its value for all. The startup is very much geared to facilitate business and communications between colleagues as well as companies and clients. And seeing as how LinkedIn has established itself as virtually the de facto professional network on the Web, Xobni’s newfound ability to tap into that immense profile pool will likely be be considered essential by many existing as well as prospective users. LinkedIn has for some time provided members with a downloadable toolbar for use within MS Outlook. The company also offers browser toolbars for both Firefox and Internet Explorer users. Still, Xobni has managed to make a commendable name for itself in very short order, and as far as features made available in any and all pre-existing software made compatible with Outlook, it sits atop its class. The infusion of a LinkedIn connection into its repertoire makes it that much more powerful. Xobni ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Xobni, an e-Mail Tracker, Raises $1.5MXobni Enters Public BetaE-mail Organizer Xobni Goes To Invite-only BetaLinkedIn Launches Corporate BlogLinkedIn Introduces “LinkedIn Store”LinkedIn Launches MobilePlaxo Adds LinkedIn to Sync [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Editor’s Note: If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion in “The Startup Review” series, please see the details here. STARTUP DETAILS: Company Name: ZenDesk 20 word description: We have 50 different channels for reporting issues, feature requests and for asking questions. We must consolidate all of this. Right now. Come Zendesk. CEO’s 100 word description: Any company, which serves more than a handful of customers, needs a help desk in order to handle customer queries and support requests. Old school help desk solutions are expensive, painfully difficult to set up and hard to use. Enter Help Desk 2.0. Zendesk is a hosted help desk solution which can be set up by anyone overnight. Zendesk combines a professional-grade feature set with a beautifully simple Ajax-based user interface. Zendesk offers monthly plans from US$19 to US$349, and a free plan for the one-man shop. Since its launch Zendesk has attracted about 2,000 customer signups. Mashable’s Take: ZenDesk is a help desk management tool, with a consumer-facing front end for users and an administrative back end that allows you to manage support-related projects. There are a number of similar tools out there, but ZenDesk hopes to stand apart from the crowd with its rather fluid management system, which enables you to organize projects according to your needs and preferences, avoiding the rigid categorization found with most help desk services. The idea with such fluid organization is that navigating the actual help desk application will be faster and more intuitive, making projects easier to search, run and track. This is achieved with optimized use of tagging and search capabilities, so stringent categorization isn’t needed. That’s not to say that categorization is completely absent, but preloaded tag dictionaries and searchability across more fields makes ZenDesk easier to use for a broader range of people. With a consumer-facing product, ZenDesk is also likened a bit to a Salesforce-like system, though in reality such direct comparisons aren’t the case. I did wonder if there would be any integration of ZenDesk with CRM systems like Salesforce, as the two systems go hand-in-hand more than they compete. While this doesn’t explicitly seem to be part of the picture, ZenDesk does offer an API as part of its service, so any integration with your business’ existing systems could be developed. Meanwhile, task-management tools like Huddle have begun to integrate help-desk features as well. A service such as ZenDesk also seems primed for integration with some of the business-oriented VoIP services that are picking up traction, including Ribbit and Jajah. Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Developing Web applications to be used within social networks and numerous other cloud-based structures is becoming more and more de rigueur for the entrepreneurial set. Both on the desktop and on the go, Web users in droves seek simple, unique software gadgets through which to access and manipulate data with easy while able to transfer seamlessly from the home to the office to weekend getaway. So there’s really no mystery in the drive for some engineers to construct platforms upon which developers - particularly the small, self-financed class - can create those ever-present, soft devices in a setting that offers both the requisite toolset and perhaps even some market exposure to boot. One software provider Mashable has mentioned in the past is Sprout, which we deemed impressive when its WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) widget builder arrived on the scene in late January. This week marked the arrival of another market entry in the form of Zembly, a self-described host and creation engine of social applications that is said to facilitate the construction of apps for use on a number of platforms and devices, including Facebook, OpenSocial, Meebo, Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Gadgets engine, and widgets that may be more broadly embedded. Founded in 2007 and backed by Sun Microsystems (it is established on a framework comprised of Solaris, Java, Glassfish, and MySQL and operates via Sun’s Network.com cloud-computing business), with early praise given by Seth Sternberg, founder and CEO of Meebo, and Jon Aizen, co-founder and CTO of Dapper, Zembly appears to be off to an interesting start. Launched as a private beta, the service, while it does offer you the option to create and amend code, is meant to help those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of building widgets from scratch to piece together new items from previously-assembled components. Zembly describes its main role thusly: “The whole point of zembly is to reuse and combine not just what other people at Zembly create, but to rely on the APIs and data from anywhere on the Web.” So far, Zembly lists about ten or so API participants, including Del.icio.us, Amazon AWS, Flickr, Google, Twitter, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) , YouTube, Zillow, and Zvents, among others, and invites any other Web API provider to join its list of partners to help broaden the possibilities for new applications through its engine. Of course, there’s only so much reach Zembly can have with its private beta restriction, but it is likely that with time, as Zembly establishes a more solid grip on the booming Web app and widget market, its influence will expand in kind. Zembly has offered Mashable 100 invites. Just enter your email address in the widget linked here to get early access to the service. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What a difference a year makes. I won’t get too mushy-faced on this one, but Facebook’s platform just celebrated its one-year anniversary. The past 12 months have completely changed the face of online social networking, in large part due to Facebook opening up its platform, and others following suit. Facebook is taking the opportunity to use its anniversary celebration to launch the next stage of its open platform strategy: open source. Brief History of Facebook’s “Openness” Since opening its platform last May, Facebook has since offered a licensed version of its platform for other networks, and has also launched Facebook Connect, which has resulted in some underwhelming complications given the current “open network” environment. So in typical Facebook fashion (that is, an insatiable need to be among the first to the table), Facebook is open-sourcing a great deal of its Facebook Platform. This includes “most of the code that runs Facebook’s Platform plus implementations of many of the most-used methods and tags,” according to a statement from Facebook. Facebook and the Developer Community This is a first step for Facebook, and it will really be up to the developer community to make the open source option shine. There are built in extensibility points, so added functionality can be incorporated into whatever renditions of the code you’d like to use. You can download the source code here. Licensed under the Common Public Attribution License, the open-sourcing of Facebook’s platform is focused on the community approach for development and implementation, as well as direct capabilities to connect brands with Facebook’s, for whatever purpose necessary. It’s also important to note that the rest of the code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License. Will Facebook Open Source Help Global Adoption of its Licensed Platform? With an open source option, there’s also an increased potential for Facebook’s platform to take on more global growth, as easier adoption for such a platform could encourage additional activity on a wider scale. What we’ve seen from a number of global markets is that the opening of one’s own platform isn’t considered a viable option, especially at earlier stages, but the ability to utilize the new open source code while also pushing one’s brand through Facebook could be a bit more enticing across the board. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Plaxo Opens Up Social Networking Aggregation CodeBreaking: Facebook Acquires Firefox Founders’ Startup ParakeyPligg’s Price: $150K?Facebook’s Answer to Open Social: Let Other Networks Use its PlatformFacebook App Platform Says No More Java SupportMySpace to Open Developer Platform, Just Like FacebookFacebook Implements Bug Tracking System [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While cruising around del.icio.us today, our own Stan Schroeder discovered a new Flickr-based visualization called Tag Galaxy, a Germany-based utility, which quickly mesmerized the entire Mashable crew. Think associate editor Paul Glazowski’s recommendation yesterday of MSNBC’s Spectra reader was a treat? Wait ’til (OOTC:TDFSF) you see this one. You start off be entering a tag such as a city name, color, or a myriad of other possible tags (I started off with “Tokyo” as it is my favorite city to visit), and once you click “Go”, the magic and fun begin. You are whisked away to what looks to be a star, surrounded by “planets” that represent complementary tags. If you’re happy with your initial search, you can just click the star and you will be zoomed in to a globe that quickly populates with images related to that tag, but if you click on one of the planets, you’ll zoom into a specific set of image results associated with one unique tag. Drilling down to that that sphere brings you to another galaxy cluster centered with a star and even more orbiting planets. You don’t necessary have to view pictures. The visual treats preceding any image browsing are enough to wow you. Once you have the globe you want filled with pictures, you can rotate it until an image catches your eye. Click it once and it will expand, click it again and it will grow even larger and display the description of the image from Flickr, along with a link to go to that images page on the photo sharing site. Click the “X” in the top right corner to make the image go back to the globe and to let you continue your browsing. Honestly, you can search on Flickr just as easily, but there is something insidiously addictive (which might sound bad, but it’s really, really good) about this method. I simply could not get enough clicking - clicking on planets, spinning them, rotating them on their axis, and finally playing with the pictures contained inside. The only negative thing I found to the whole experience is that it does appear to slow down some after a lot of play, as Brad Linder of Download Squad described recently, but whether it is Firefox or system resources that are the cause of the sometimes sluggish performance, I can’t quite confirm. My money’s on Firefox. Maybe it’s both. If you have some time to kill, I highly recommend going over and playing with it for a bit, but be warned, Mashables. You’ll end up finding time quickly slipping away from you as you explore more and more tags. Easily the best time killer of the weekend. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Galaxy IT: Fractal Grid Search TechnologyGoogle’s Experimental Views Improve PerfectionGalaxiki Launches Niche Wiki for Creating Your own Outer SpaceMMORPG TOOLBOX: 30+ Free MMORPGsGoogle Labs: A Look Under the Hood [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While cruising around del.icio.us today, our own Stan Schroeder discovered a new Flickr-based visualization called Tag Galaxy, a Germany-based utility, which quickly mesmerized the entire Mashable crew. Think associate editor Paul Glazowski’s recommendation yesterday of MSNBC’s Spectra reader was a treat? Wait ’til (OOTC:TDFSF) you see this one. You start off be entering a tag such as a city name, color, or a myriad of other possible tags (I started off with “Tokyo” as it is my favorite city to visit), and once you click “Go”, the magic and fun begin. You are whisked away to what looks to be a star, surrounded by “planets” that represent complementary tags. If you’re happy with your initial search, you can just click the star and you will be zoomed in to a globe that quickly populates with images related to that tag, but if you click on one of the planets, you’ll zoom into a specific set of image results associated with one unique tag. Drilling down to that that sphere brings you to another galaxy cluster centered with a star and even more orbiting planets. You don’t necessary have to view pictures. The visual treats preceding any image browsing are enough to wow you. Once you have the globe you want filled with pictures, you can rotate it until an image catches your eye. Click it once and it will expand, click it again and it will grow even larger and display the description of the image from Flickr, along with a link to go to that images page on the photo sharing site. Click the “X” in the top right corner to make the image go back to the globe and to let you continue your browsing. Honestly, you can search on Flickr just as easily, but there is something insidiously addictive (which might sound bad, but it’s really, really good) about this method. I simply could not get enough clicking - clicking on planets, spinning them, rotating them on their axis, and finally playing with the pictures contained inside. The only negative thing I found to the whole experience is that it does appear to slow down some after a lot of play, as Brad Linder of Download Squad described recently, but whether it is Firefox or system resources that are the cause of the sometimes sluggish performance, I can’t quite confirm. My money’s on Firefox. Maybe it’s both. If you have some time to kill, I highly recommend going over and playing with it for a bit, but be warned, Mashables. You’ll end up finding time quickly slipping away from you as you explore more and more tags. Easily the best time killer of the weekend.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/25/tag-galaxy/ Ping This! ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Galaxy IT: Fractal Grid Search TechnologyGoogle’s Experimental Views Improve PerfectionGalaxiki Launches Niche Wiki for Creating Your own Outer SpaceMMORPG TOOLBOX: 30+ Free MMORPGsGoogle Labs: A Look Under the Hood [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was one year ago to the day that the Facebook Platform had its debut in San Francisco, California. And oh how far it has come. An entire economy has emerged in the months since the launch, complete with virtually all of the ups and downs that come with development and management of a startup marketplace. Many third parties have benefited considerably from activity on the network. More have seen less of lady luck. Disputes have arisen over a myriad of things - openness and user data security and portability being perhaps the most consistently topical of all. And plenty of fun has been had along the way. Surely some tears have been shed as well. (No first-hand knowledge, there, but the sheer size of the lottery says its a definite.) As the Facebook Platform goes into its second year, with venture funds and advertisers playing the financiers of much current and future developments, it’s understood that the network’s own fortunes are largely dependent on the platform’s resilience as it makes its way through 2008, 2009, and beyond. Facebook would not be what it is today without those thousands and thousands of applications, giving users the “value-added” functions only outside developers could provide. Tomorrow it will continue to thrive on users’ increasing desire to connect and socialize as much as play games and share media and so forth. And naturally, the platform will evolve. Amendments will be made. Greater powers will be put in the hands of developers. All in the name of progress. Which is great. Who doesn’t like advancement? That’s what the Web is all about. Yes, of course, more concerns about user safety are bound to be voiced. And assurances of users’ security will be relayed. And that sort of back-and-forth will not stop. At least not for a long while. But as for the grander picture, the proverbial glass ceiling for Facebook is still well above the place where the company now finds itself. 2007-2008 was only the first series of steps for the network as far as associating with third-parties. 2008-2009 will presumably bring significantly more forward motion for developers. As the Facebook Platform was first introduced, the word around the tech blog space was about the creation of an operating system. To some observers it may have seemed far fetched to look at it in such a way. But with hindsight, it seems that that is precisely where the company’s path is leading. Which is altogether a very good prognosis for Facebook, as the network is right in the thick of things, socially speaking. It’s ingrained in the Web as much as a company of its size can be at the moment, making connections with a potpourri of various Web services, either through partnerships or singular applications constructed for the platform, and it’s increasing its value tremendously for doing so. It’s not as extensive as, say, Windows or Mac OS X or Linux for that matter. No, not even close. But it needn’t be so. It is not the be-all and end-all of computing. It never will be. But what it can be is a very extensive, very customizable social operating system. It has already managed to attract tens of millions of users who recognize it as relatively refined alternative to less elegant systems. And its developer platform has more or less been open enough to facilitate the creation of relatively simple applications that users have shown considerable interest. Logic would have it that the seasons ahead hold better provisions still. So whether or not you’re a fan of Facebook, whether you think it’s a great invention or a waste of time, or something which sits somewhere between those two choices, it is, along with the Facebook Platform, a chief catalyst for the ... [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was one year ago to the day that the Facebook Platform had its debut in San Francisco, California. And oh how far it has come. An entire economy has emerged in the months since the launch, complete with virtually all of the ups and downs that come with development and management of a startup marketplace. Many third parties have benefited considerably from activity on the network. More have seen less of lady luck. Disputes have arisen over a myriad of things - openness and user data security and portability being perhaps the most consistently topical of all. And plenty of fun has been had along the way. Surely some tears have been shed as well. (No first-hand knowledge, there, but the sheer size of the lottery says its a definite.) As the Facebook Platform goes into its second year, with venture funds and advertisers playing the financiers of much current and future developments, it’s understood that the network’s own fortunes are largely dependent on the platform’s resilience as it makes its way through 2008, 2009, and beyond. Facebook would not be what it is today without those thousands and thousands of applications, giving users the “value-added” functions only outside developers could provide. Tomorrow it will continue to thrive on users’ increasing desire to connect and socialize as much as play games and share media and so forth. And naturally, the platform will evolve. Amendments will be made. Greater powers will be put in the hands of developers. All in the name of progress. Which is great. Who doesn’t like advancement? That’s what the Web is all about. Yes, of course, more concerns about user safety are bound to be voiced. And assurances of users’ security will be relayed. And that sort of back-and-forth will not stop. At least not for a long while. But as for the grander picture, the proverbial glass ceiling for Facebook is still well above the place where the company now finds itself. 2007-2008 was only the first series of steps for the network as far as associating with third-parties. 2008-2009 will presumably bring significantly more forward motion for developers. As the Facebook Platform was first introduced, the word around the tech blog space was about the creation of an operating system. To some observers it may have seemed far fetched to look at it in such a way. But with hindsight, it seems that that is precisely where the company’s path is leading. Which is altogether a very good prognosis for Facebook, as the network is right in the thick of things, socially speaking. It’s ingrained in the Web as much as a company of its size can be at the moment, making connections with a potpourri of various Web services, either through partnerships or singular applications constructed for the platform, and it’s increasing its value tremendously for doing so. It’s not as extensive as, say, Windows or Mac OS X or Linux for that matter. No, not even close. But it needn’t be so. It is not the be-all and end-all of computing. It never will be. But what it can be is a very extensive, very customizable social operating system. It has already managed to attract tens of millions of users who recognize it as relatively refined alternative to less elegant systems. And its developer platform has more or less been open enough to facilitate the creation of relatively simple applications that users have shown considerable interest. Logic would have it that the seasons ahead hold better provisions still. So whether or not you’re a fan of Facebook, whether you think it’s a great invention or a waste of time, or something which sits somewhere between those two choices, it is, along with the Facebook Platform, a chief catalyst for the ... [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If you’re a videogame buff, and have the desire to share captures of the action via the Web, chances are you’ll like this story. Now, as far as online video hosts are concerned, YouTube is king. No question about that. But in the realm of video game clips, some players may pay greater mind to more purist institutions. GameVee, formerly known as GeeVee, is one such outlet. Still, when people think Web video, people think YouTube. Virtual ubiquity can do that. Which is presumably why Sony (NYSE:SNE) chose to introduce this week an integration between its Playstation 3 game console and the relatively new YouTube APIs which launched back in March. According to Nikhil Chandhok, a product manager for the video site, the partnership with Sony enables gamers with titles that are capable of interacting with netework updates to “direct upload…in-game video captures to YouTube.” An example provided by Chandhok of a game that will allow players to connect to YouTube direct from their consoles is “Mainichi Issho,” said to be popular in Japan. Mind you, this isn’t the first we’ve heard of Sony working to incorporate Web video into the Playstation 3 framework. As we mentioned late last month, the company has been in talks with television and film studios to distribute content through its Internet-connected entertainment console to complement its early success (though so far limited) on the Blu-Ray front.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/17/sony-youtube/ ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Sony Minisodes on YouTube. Can You Handle It?Eyevio - Sony Launching YouTube Rival on FridaySony to Show Minisodes Exclusively on MySpaceAnother Sony Rootkit?Sony Battling Apple for Video Download MarketGoogle Video Adds Free Music Videos from Warner and SonySony Connect Music Service Shutting Down [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Facebook is all about openess, right? And privacy. It’s a balance, or something. Oftentimes it’s a tricky balance, but Facebook has self-instituted standards to live up to. And those standards say that Google’s new Friend Connect is evil (in so many words). As Friend Connect supposedly shares user data in a way that circumvents total disclosure to all users involved, Facebook has stated that Friend Connect does not comply with its standards for collecting user data and redistributing it across the web. The result? Friend Connect’s access to Facebook has been suspended. So much for the web platform coming to fruition in an easy, cooperative manner. Google still has Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) to compete with on the search level, but when it comes to the development of open standards, MySpace, Facebook and Google have become the battling trio. Between Friend Connect, Facebook Connect, and MySpace’s Data Availability on top of existing open platforms, the race is on to become the dominant, most widely adopted platform for such open standards. It’s quite dizzying at this point, and not so cooperative after all. Facebook has stated that it’s reached out to Google in order to find a way in which to reach a satisfactory level of compliance, so hopefully that will happen soon. Google does, after all, have a burning desire to own the universe’s data.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/15/facebook-blocks-friend-connec/ ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Petition to Bring Back Facebook’s “Skip This Step”Now Facebook Wants to Own Your EmailMartha Stewart Is Your Friend… And It’s A ‘Good Thing’Facebook Now Allows You To Ignore Selected App InvitesMySpace Friend Updates Arrive. Is Anyone Still Using MySpace?Why Exes Should Never See Your Facebook AccountMetaCafe Launches Facebook Application [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Do you prefer your mashups useful or fun? If latter is the answer, we’ve got a treat for you: 17 quirky Google Maps mashups that probably won’t cure cancer or stop world hunger, but they’re definitely interesting, at least from the “someone did that?” point of view. You might want to hurry browsing through these, though; from our experience, Google Maps mashups tend to die out almost as fast as they appear. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Do you prefer your mashups useful or fun? If latter is the answer, we’ve got a treat for you: 17 quirky Google Maps mashups that probably won’t cure cancer or stop world hunger, but they’re definitely interesting, at least from the “someone did that?” point of view. You might want to hurry browsing through these, though; from our experience, Google Maps mashups tend to die out almost as fast as they appear. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Those animated, talking avatars you might have come across on sites like Evite and CBS Radio are about to become a lot more prevalent. Oddcast, the company behind them, is announcing the Voki Partner Platform, which enables any web site to offer their users the ability to create their own talking avatars. Oddcast has already been working with select partners to deploy the platform, but now anyone can sign up via the Voki Platform web site. There are two flavors available: basic and premium. The basic service is free, but carries Oddcast branding and doesn’t let the publisher control the advertising. The premium version allows total customization, let’s you control the advertising, and includes extra features such as messaging so users can share their avatars with friends and drive them to your site. It will cost you at least $2,000/mo, however. I’m not usually one to quote the marketing buzzwords, but in this case Shaival Shah of Oddcast actually provides a good explanation of why someone might want to deploy this: “… The user engagement and advertising revenue generated in the program’s first months created a high-level of demand for the partner platform. So we launched an automated, self-service program on voki.com for any online community to enable their end users with our avatar platform.” Makes sense – conversation keeps people on web sites longer, and Oddcast’s unique, avatar-based approach to community has proven that it can create engagement. OddCast has been around since the first boom and bust (founded in 1999) and now has more than 9,000 customers, so the “odd” technology seems to have staying power. Aside from the platform and business customers, OddCast also targets individual consumers with widgets that you can place in your various social networking profiles.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/13/oddcast-api/ ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:MySpace Avatars from SitepalOddcast Launches Voki: The Right Avatars for MySpaceSceneCaster Launches 3D Worlds for Commerce, Search, and CommunityBuild Your Own Avatar Community with the Voki PlatformSceneCaster’s 3D Virtual CommunityPhotobucket is World’s Biggest Photo Site [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CityIN, a Chinese social network, launched a few weeks back with one small differentiating factor: geographic-based friend recommendations for media. Now that CityIN has had a chance to get its feet wet, it’s onto the next milestone–opening up its platform. That may not seem like a big deal, especially since CityIN is brand new. Why would anyone care that a small social networking site is opening up its platform? It’s a case of the chicken and the egg, but it’s one that will be interesting to follow, even from afar. There are a couple of things going on with this particular release. Opening its platform for application developers gives CityIN a first mover advantage in the Chinese market. In doing so, CityIN will be providing a Chinese version (essentially) of Google’s Open Social, which is something Google hasn’t fully done yet (though we may see some progress towards that end, given Google’s increased workforce in China). So there’s the chicken. Where’s the egg? With hopes of growing quickly and becoming a dominant social network in its space (which will soon expand beyond China), CityIN is hoping to lure developers in China and outside China with its open platform approach. Simon Chan, co-founder of CityIN, has indicated that he is already in talks with game developers in China for creating games to work on CityIN. But Chan is also hoping that the extension of the Open Social platform will lure in developers and publishers from across the globe, as CityIN can provide localized applications to work on its network. This is another situation, somewhat similar to Coghead’s recently launched marketplace, of opening a platform in order to achieve growth, though an existing large user base is typically necessary for a successful platform approach to begin with. We’ll see if CityIN’s particular approach will work, as Chan not only wants to take on Baidu and Google, but Facebook too. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:City!N Prepares To Launch in China On March 14thFacebook’s Answer to Open Social: Let Other Networks Use its PlatformOpen Friend Format Moves ForwardBebo Opens Developer Platform with Support for Facebook ApplicationsWebGuild’s Impact of the Social Graph on Search and Discovery is TomorrowOpen Web Awards: Nominations for Best Large Social NetworksPlaxo Opens Up Social Networking Aggregation Code [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even though MySpace launched their platform some weeks ago, it may not have been quite ready for “prime time.” That may soon change. According to Justin Smith of Inside Facebook, a lead developer and product owner for the MySpace Developer Platform named Max Newbould divulged information in an online chat recently that long-awaited portions of the platform will debut relatively soon. Smith describes Newbould’s messages as a notice that so-called MySpace Platform notifications would launch April 30th, while Platform invitations are still a “good month away.” Seeing as these missing pieces to the MySpace Platform may well have hindered MySpace from witnessing phenomenal growth in its budding applications marketplace, the network would certainly do well to add such components as soon as possible, particularly if it is to satisfy user demand for well-integrated third-party developments. The MySpace application gallery is full of apps waiting to be discovered by users, but without these key parts to the platform, it has been apparently been somewhat rough-going for developers. The most popular application currently, Truth Box, only has 159,249 installs, compared with rather common applications on Facebook such as iLike, which has 305,791 daily active users, you can see how the MySpace engine is not doing as well as it could. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Photobucket’s Slide Show Upgrades for More CustomizationThe Daily Poll: Would You Build Apps for the MySpace Developer Platform?Slide Set to Release Official MySpace AppsInitial Applications for MySpace Platform Launching on March 13thMySpace India: Original TV Content and Open PlatformExclusive: 25 Invites for MySpace Developer Platform Launch PartyMySpace to Open Developer Platform, Just Like Facebook [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Box.net has landed another partnership, this time with recently funded mobile/web media-sharing tool ShoZu. The deal between these two companies means that ShoZu users now have easy, mobile access to their Box.net accounts, which can be used for their media storage needs. The move on ShoZu’s part is an extension of what the company has been shifting towards in these past few months–providing a two-way communication tool for bridging the gap between mobile and PC media-sharing capabilities. In doing so, ShoZu is not only providing a conduit for sending your mobile content to your PC browser, but for sending your PC browser content to your mobile device as well. When first making this shift, ShoZu offered a way for users to get their YouTube and Flickr content on their mobile devices, which are both media storage services in their own right, albeit they’re also both media-specific. Box.net, on the other hand, can be used for all media types, and broadens the direct storage and sharing features for which users can take advantage. Thanks to an increasing number of cooperative APIs, such as Box.net’s OpenBox, it’s even easier to combine its media-storage tools with several other applications and services out there. We’re sure to see many more partnerships towards these ends, from both Box.net and ShoZu. ShareThis---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Shozu: Send Your Cellphone Photos To FlickrShoZu Adds Facebook App and One-Click UploadShoZu Goes Both Ways: Get YouTube & Flickr on Your MobileShoZu Raises $12 Million; Aims For More PartnershipsBox.net Releases Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) & Adobe Plug-insBox.net Announces a Business File-Sharing WidgetBox.net Extends Your iPhone Storage [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ringside Networks, a new company founded by Bob Bickel, a former Java pro for JBoss, is planning a launch Tuesday for an open-source social application server that will help developers run applications built for particular websites, like Facebook, reported CNET’s Matt Asay and Martin LaMonica. Ringside finds that, among the 19,000+ third-party applications built for Facebook alone, there is a clear opening for an agent such as itself to deliver devoted server strength for such developments. The company is making it particularly easy for coders to build and run applications on Facebooks platform by utilizing its so-called social application engine, which enables the transfer, or sharing, of Facebook user information. Also, Ringside intends to deliver OpenSocial integration with its services as well, which will allow the server to tap into other social networks such as MySpace, Orkut, and Bebo, the companys founder explained. Ringside will establish its OpenSocial connections in Q2 2008. Perhaps Ringsides most biggest advantage for the application developers it strives to attract developers is its inherent devotion to open-source with respect to data access and its willingness to adapt and grow to encompass all types of applications, be they Facebook-specific or created to more broadly address user needs and demands across numerous social networks. As the allure of cross-compatibility has shown to make projects such as OpenSocial and DataPortability increasingly enticing, the potential for Ringside to become a brand well-regarded throughout the industry makes it an entity on the server side that may well be worth watching. ShareThis [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

MindTouch has just released a major update to its Deki Wiki, adding support for several Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) services including Silverlight, ADO.NET Data Services, and Windows Live. This means that mashups created with Deki Wiki can now consider these newly supported applications, which adds onto the existing options for Google and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) application integration that Deki Wiki already had. As MindTouch is also introducing a new Deki Wiki, called Wiki.is, at MIX08 this week, the potential clients for Wiki.is will be happy with the updates made to Deki Wiki today. Wiki.is is a new Deki Wiki option that offers free (no ads), online hosting, and is an option specifically for enterprise teams, workgroups and power users. So on the business end of things, better integration with Microsoft products means easier mashup creations that are likely to involve tools that your team already uses. An important piece of this offering is the free, full access to the API. Another one of the more useful options may be the ability to integrate Windows Live Messenger for IM capabilities, which only aids in the collaborative nature of a wiki. Given AOL’s earlier announcement about Open AIM today and some of the other developments we’ve seen in the IM space with AOL’s Userplane and Meebo, it’s clear that IM integration has taken on new meaning thanks to furthered adoption of open standards and crumbling walls. There are some upgrades available for this new free offering, which come with more features (storage and full customization) and a price tag of about $100 per year. ShareThis [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multimedia microblogging tool Zannel is getting ready (OTCBB:GTRY) to reveal its open API next week. On March 3rd, the REST-based API will be available to developers that would like to incorporate some mobile/web media-sharing tools into their own services. The API is built on the same platform that powers Zannel’s web and WAP products, and should give way to some interesting mashups, specifically for media-sharing. Along with Zannel’s API, developers will also be able to take advantage of the integrated tools that Zannel has added throughout the past year, including multimedia updates that can be sent to Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace and Blogger, to name a few. There are also custom tag options for adding to Flickr feeds, while Facebook feeds can update users’ status in addition to their media albums, based on the message content. This is all integrated in a two-way fashion, so such updates, even those integrated with other networks, can be seen via mobile and web by other users in your service. Such integrated multimedia-sharing is finally starting to pick up speed, becoming a necessity for web-based networks. So what we’re seeing now is a large push for platform options that allow existing networks to layer in mobile functionality through the use of APIs or other services like Iomota. If you sign on for Zannel’s API, let us know what comes of it! ShareThis [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]