Tip of the Iceberg

Iceberg is similar to DIY applications like Coghead, but as the name implies, there is much more beneath the surface. Coghead is really more like a widget maker, while Iceberg is a true enterprise level DIY platform. Salesforce's AppExchange is probably Iceberg's closest competition, but it is not agnostic to software or code and it can be quite expensive. BungeeLabs (profiled in April by Read/WriteWeb) also has similarities to Iceberg, but it is more for programmers - using solutions, projects and classes. Iceberg uses business objects without any coding.

Basic Included Applications

Iceberg intends to release free, single hosted and per-user versions. Some of its features:

• Human Resources ‚Äì Includes best practices processes to manage the entire HR lifecycle
• Advanced CRM ‚Äì Functions and processes for leads, opportunities, calls, scheduling, appointments, deals, competition, forecasting and contracts
• Project Management ‚Äì Scheduling, assignment, escalation, timeline, tasks and resources
• Rostering ‚Äì Build shifts and auto hourly billing or payroll based for clients or employees
• Knowledge Base ‚Äì Centralized knowledge base with customized control and search
• Recruitment Manager ‚Äì Manage collecting CV‚Äôs and interviewing with tiered approval
• Booking Engine ‚Äì Manages any booked or limited resource from hotel rooms to flights
• Timesheet and Billing ‚Äì Task/Time management with payroll, invoicing - profitability
• Bug Tracker ‚Äì Roll assignment and bug tracking with designated control

My simple personal home at Iceberg 

The Platform

Iceberg uses a DHTML interface to create Web or network based applications - it currently supports both Fx and IE. Flash based workflow generation and point-and-click tools help users create modules for deep reporting, unlimited calendars, graphing, quick start pages, full function email and file management to list a few.

Iceberg’s enterprise friendly features include: key object tracking, advanced calendar functionality, scheduled processes and many more. Essentially, it has all the function without the coding or support requirements of other platforms. Wayne Byrne claimed that "there is really no longer a need to create software or code to utilize what already exists, we have re-invented the wheel several times over."

Beneath The Surface

The power of Iceberg is in the creation and integration of applications. Services like WebEx Office and Coghead are useful (and even prettier), but at the end of the day they are relatively limited in scope.

Iceberg utilizes Web service API‚Äôs to automatically create, update and delete services generated for user applications. These ‚Äúcall‚Ä? events essentially create ‚Äúhybrid‚Ä? processes tailored to user preferences. The best way to illustrate this is with an example using Google Adwords. In the following sequence a site administrator/owner needs to optimize their Adwords account/bid process.

User creates a business object for estimating/tracking Adwords

Essentially what we are doing with Iceberg is communicating with a user's Adwords account via a call event and then setting up parameters (bid criteria) for firing points. The end result can be as simple as a notification or as complex as carrying out automated bidding events. A user can literally have their Iceberg handle Adwords or other accounts for them.

Here we define rule decisions for our Adwords interface

The simple result below illustrates how a user can effectively call Google Adwords, get minute by minute CPC data, establish process variables, notifications and ultimately "teach" Iceberg to optimize Adwords' cost and peak effectiveness. It does not take much imagination to visualize Iceberg interfacing with any API and integrating those processes with a user's applications.

Process development UI showing toolbox and an example of Adwords process loop

Conclusion

Iceberg is not yet as refined as some business applications, but it is only in private beta testing. However, the platform can essentially do any function its competitors can without using code or software.

The big surprise under the surface is that Iceberg can do much more than create business applications. I mentioned Twitter to Wayne and he told me that someone could essentially "clone" Twitter with Iceberg. Right now the interface is not overly simple to use for the novice, but Wayne assured me that more discoverability is on the way.

This service is taking a big step in allowing users the capability to imagine and create very advanced applications and processes. In a nutshell, by the time a programmer maps out and plans a development, it could already be created and functional with Iceberg. This is potentially a powerful service for business and personal applications.

Both of these new tools allow for faster more relevant result selection and additional utility for users.

hakia highlighter

The hakia highlighter upgrade addresses what Melek Pulatkonak, COO of hakia, termed ‚ÄúClick-Thru-Itis‚Ä? - or clicking through a link to determine relevance. Traditional search engines often force users to click links excessively in order to determine (based on limited information) which result is relevant. The hakia highlighter alleviates the need for excessive clicks by displaying meaning-based, uninterrupted sentences in the search result. Determining relevance and providing an educated selection of URLs is improved because of the added content and context provided by these sentences. Broken keywords and phrases simply do not provide enough information.

Let‚Äôs examine what typically happens when we do a search on Google. For the search query: ‚ÄúWhat does it mean to cross the Rubicon?‚Ä? the Google results are almost always more difficult to "filter" because of fragmented meaning. The real problem is in the disparity between relative results and how people are forced into making decisions based on this broken information. The Google results to this query vary from the rule of habeas corpus to a metaphysical discourse, but the bold keywords do not signal this wide disparity.

Note: fragmented keywords and phrases

Invariably, selecting from broken sentences will lead to unwanted visits to those URLs. Let’s now look at what is revealed with the same search on hakia. The highlighted sentences provide more information and relevance for deciding. Results that display no sentences on hakia are ruled out all together and more obvious examples become readily apparent. In this example, extra clicks aren't necessary in order to significantly "narrow" a subject.

Note: I followed the highlighted sentences as much as I did the links

The hakia highlighter examples demonstrate the engine's ability to "think" semantically and display the process in a way that narrows selection options.

Scoop Bar

The scoop bar is a browser plugin that lets users apply semantic results in a unique way. Currently it is only available on Windows, but Mac support is coming.

When installed, clicking the scoop browser icon reveals a pull-down with several options. The home option refers back to hakia, where a search for "What is the specific gravity of lead?" renders a highlighted result as before; but clicking on a desired result reveals the page AND scrolls the page to the highlighted passage as below.

Note: The scroll bar is about 1/3 down a very long page on ballistics

The button in front of the highlighted passage has several functions. Clicking the pull-down arrow allows the user to highlight desired text and save the link and text to a custom folder. Alternatively, clicking the "scoop and save" icon saves the link and text to a default folder or file.

Note: Additional highlighted paragraph and saving to a created folder

Additional buttons and functions allow for more customization and navigation. The options button at top center of the tool bar brings up the scoop and save functions, while the "my results" pull-down lists saved results and navigates to them as illustrated below.

My result function and destination folder

Perhaps a real world example is in order. If I were doing a post on ballistics, Hakia (even in beta) has provided me with faster and more relevant results, a method for saving/customizing results, and a point for the study of all the data gleaned. A user could perform the same function in any browser, but it is obvious that time and function would be lost comparatively. 

Conclusion

Hakia is progressing to the point of expressing results in true "natural language" terms. Make no mistake, the comparative results of Google, Yahoo and hakia are not conclusively differentiated yet, but the progress of hakia is fairly clear in these examples. The way the "scoop" function directs the user to relevant links and then "scrolls" to the pertinent passage is evidence of the semantic engine at work locating relevant data. The implications of this are powerful and exciting for hakia and the rest of us. There is a long road ahead for hakia, but predicting outcomes is so often a function of watching the little things.

In a sense MindTouch is transforming the Wiki, from the Web’s best collaborative authoring tool into an open source service platform with a Wiki heart. Their Deki Wiki Hayes release is perhaps the most extendable Wiki tool available today. The product is OS and programming language agnostic. Deki Wiki Hayes allows developers, administrators and users to create or integrate Wiki capability into web apps.

Hayes for Developers

We talked a great deal about terms like the semantic-web, aggregation, and interconnectivity. Wiki Hayes allows all users to benefit from nearly any Web service with Wiki style and simplicity. From a developmental standpoint Wiki Hayes adds both flexibility and standardization to new or existing services. Here is the short list for key features that aid users and developers:

• Language Agnostic ‚Äì Programmers can use any language and interface with Hayes
• Bi-Directional API ‚Äì Allows developers to add Wiki capability to existing applications
• LDAP/AD Integration ‚Äì Utilize existing user directories and authentication
• Multiple Skinning Support ‚Äì Customization flexibility and simplicity
• Files and Tagging ‚Äì Versioning, indexing for search with category and chrono-tagging
• Permissions ‚Äì Pages, groups, spaces and other full page level authorizations
• Media Support ‚Äì Page level attachments, rich media support and image gallery
• Platform Independence ‚Äì Linux, Solaris, MacOSX, Windows or Unix via Mono or .Net
• Lucene Search ‚Äì Enterprise class search tool searches indexed pages, file types and tags

Mindtouch has current deployments at Microsoft, BP, Stanford University and many others around the world. Transforming the simplicity and popularity of the Deki Wiki into a value added service platform aids developers by providing a more powerful, flexible and enjoyable downstream product for their clients.

Example of a nice Deki Wiki build

Hayes for Administrators

The big advantage to local administrators is the simplicity and flexibility of Wiki collaboration. Deki Wika Hayes also simplifies permissions and web extensions for users of any technical skill level. The Bi-Directional API function allows cross platform mixing and blending of services and enhanced control  for administrators. In essence, anything the Deki Wiki can do is easily done by the site admin. Aggregating content, graphing, extension authentication and dozens of other features are resident out-of-the-box features for the Hayes release.

Editor and navigation of the Wiki hierarchy

Hayes for Users

Deki Wiki Hayes allows end users to participate on an unparalleled scale. Users can create, customize and utilize Deki Wikis and services like Flickr or YouTube without even learning Wiki markup. The WYSIWYG editor is the heart of the UI and has the power of a light word processor. Deki Hayes doesn‚Äôt use non-standard markup language, so users can simple copy and paste from office docs. or web pages. The editor also toggles between plain text and XHTML for experienced users. In short, any user can enhance existing services, create rich pages, find and organize content, communicate and aggregate content with ‚Äúsimpler than Wiki‚Ä? ease.

Sandbox creation I started for a project - note Digg widget  

Conclusion

Mindtouch has done a fantastic job of creating a platform that simplifies and/or integrates the development, administration and end use of a wide range of Web entities. Wikis are one of the most widely used and flexible conduits for collaboration we have, and Deki Wiki tools add  even more connectivity between the people from end to end. The Hayes release and the tools I tested are not ‚Äúdrop dead‚Ä? simple as far as discoverability goes, but extensive documentation is available and the learning curve is not overly steep. Ease of use for programmers, HTML users and Wiki aficionados should be a snap, and even I was able to turn one of my projects into a Deki Wiki easily. Hayes will be released today or Wednesday, but you can get a head start at OpenGarden.

Speed, Power and Getting There

Semantics is expressed meaning in language, code or "other" representations of information. My discussions with Barney and Melek revealed the fundamental differences in architecture and philosophy between hakia and Powerset. The index systems of the two companies are fundamentally different, as is their philosophy - but their goals and visions are remarkably similar. They are also different in the way they apply what I term horsepower to natural language search. Like the symbolism of Shelby vs. Ferrari,– it is possible for different approaches to achieve a desired result - given enough horsepower.

Hakia has built their search in-house, refining and sculpting the QDex indexing system (like an Enzo Ferrari). Their view is that processing power should be maximized with super efficiency, via fuzzy logic and advanced semantics. Powerset, on the other hand, utilizes basically the same inverted indexing system as Google - but backed by natural language and immensely powerful processing that essentially “overpowers” the long tail query (like the GT 500). This is a vast oversimplification, but the elements involved reveal the larger story.

Technology (horsepower), communication (language) and people make up the semantic Web. The Web has not been lacking "language", but the adequate application of processing power. As Barney said: "Even five years ago we did not have the processing capability to even attempt this, but five years from now these answers will seem elementary." Google's system below, currently consumes massive horsepower with comparatively limited results - at least according to hakia and Powerset!

Diagram of Google's inverted index and search (courtesy -changturtle)

Unbending Humans

Barney described the relationship between people and computers as people being "bent" around or adapted to technology in order to utilize it. With the advent of services like Facebook, programs and applications are beginning to “understand” each other. Everyone reading this has been “forced” by technology to conform to varied “bending events”, in order to use it. Barney explained this idea by calling Facebook and the iPhone true innovations approaching total “community engagement.” Barney also said that “Facebook will become one of the primary communications platforms of the future.” Given this new perspective, I could not agree more because Facebook is one heck of a representation of information for a social network. Essentially, hakia, Powerset, Facebook and others are bending the machines to engage humans. And in a way, Facebook is the semantic Web in a microcosm - but in it's infancy.

Semantics and Search?

Search is a critical part of our daily lives, but the interface has changed very little over the years. We define search as the act of typing in a query on Google and getting results. This is a type of search, but how many other kinds of “searches” do we perform? In an earlier article, Josh Catone wrote about Yahoo!’s contention that search will not determine the future of the Web. Josh rightly asked if Facebook and MySpace might be better positioned if “personalization” was to be the future of the Web.

Conclusion

I should make it clear that neither Barney nor Melek really consider themselves as "Google Killers". Powerset and hakia are not in a race either against each other or to overtake Google, but they are on a quest for better Web communication and engagement. Both efforts emphasize the necessity for “the system” to be able to universally understand and handle data without ambiguity. Viewing Facebook and others as functional repositories of semantic data is essential in seeing the long view. Whether we are talking about object oriented data, textual semantics or complex algorithms, the semantic Web is about making people “bend” less for technology.

What Can It Do?

The UI at Streamy is simple and fairly intuitive. Users land on the start page looking at a basic three column layout tabbed with start, streams, people, profile and options. The start page is dominated by "What's Hot Today" content and graphic links to suggest or save feeds in each category. Users can change this view by navigating across 11 news topics, from arts to video games. In this aspect Streamy is not really differentiated from sites like Digg, Netscape or other news sites. What does differentiate Streamy though is the combination of  "function tabs", the sharing zones and the chat interface. These function fields and sharing zones do the following:

Streams - Saved, shared, comments, friend's shared streams, the subscription finder, saves - filters and create a filter

People - Friends, groups, status stream, friends of, location, profile editor, create a group and send an invitation

Profile - Accounts, subscriptions, comments, personal info, image, groups, friends, website launch, IM and etc.

Options - Streamy configuration including; environment, password, streamy theme and several enable options

Sharing Zones - Drop the dragged news to save, email or save the stories

This utility is a simple reorganization of the way we do things on other sites, but the drag and drop capability potentially speeds navigation and promises great sharing/communication capability. Accessing and manipulating stories is really what Streamy is all about and functions like this can easily go viral.

The personalization aspect is present, but secondary to the user's ability to communicate directly while sharing stories. In a nutshell - users can talk while dragging and dropping news into any number of fields from the chat module to group discussions. In the screenshot below I demonstrate Streamy's drop zones, dragging aspect, subscription finder and interactive chat module.

So, what is it?

Streamy is the product of two very talented programmers whose innovation is unfortunately caught in the midst of a blog frenzy. It is wholly inappropriate to label Streamy as anything like a Digg contender this early, and the resultant elevated expectations will only retard the product's progress. A similar destiny befell Flock when it was released and dozens of others as well. Streamy is a highly functional social news networking startup. Users have almost unparalleled on-site communication with the flexible chat interface and excellent customization tools. Streamy is a "preview" of a next generation social news networking site. What else could it be - the filtering aspect (which Don told me was the heart of the vision) is largely dependent on multi-user input.

Sharing Elena Sanrtarelli with friend DJ - gotta love day stamps

Pros

Streamy has great potential because of the power of Ajax and the news portal. Don showed me innumerable ways in which the drag and drop can be utilized to share, save and otherwise disperse news. The site is quite elegant - almost beautiful aesthetically - and their spatial organization is superb. The pop up versions of the selected news stories combined with browsing buttons, makes Streamy superior to nearly all news networks and especially Digg.

The chat module is really what sets Streamy apart. Even though a module like this would be a redundancy on other apps, it is a valuable instant communication and transfer tool on a viral news service like Streamy.

Cons

Streamy has a big problem in "the degree" of differentiation it has from other sites. My argument with Don is represented in the screens showing Flock and Me.dium, and I used them to illustrate that I could effectively do anything Streamy can do elsewhere. Streamy is not far enough along to get a true measure of its filtering capability, but it is evident that social news, drag and drop and chatting is not going to rock the civilized world. The navigation is fair, but a pretty steep learning curve detracts from discoverability - as Josh Catone and I discovered earlier today. The demo helps very little and a few clicks lead to dead ends all-together. Essentially, the site needs user feedback to be able to live up to their claims of "semantic" and advanced filtering. 

Browse friends feed and stream menu

Conclusion

This is a shoestring development by two very talented developers, but it is not Joost or the iPhone - nor does it have the backing to be like that yet. Streamy is simply not ready for predictions this early in the game (Digg competitor or your new start page?). However, if they don't differentiate themselves more - and soon - then they may well become just the next "flash in the pan" startup. It is not really good news when neither of the developers can substantially describe their vision or plan of development (as was the case).

After all this, how would I describe Streamy? It's a promising news networking site currently in private beta testing.

On the Web we currently have a mixed bag of review sites - everything from Epinions to remote blog sites.

What Makes a Good Review Site?

We are looking to make informed judgments; or in the case of writing reviews, we want to share these pieces of knowledge. In a nutshell - we want a combination of a website(s) we can utilize and one (or more) that we can trust. So far the larger consumer review sites essentially offer limited reviews, hype or in the case of Epinion type sites - just consumer feedback. The big question is: "Do we want/need an all-in-one review entity?" Matt Moog and his team believes a  a great number of people do and they have laid out a rather extensive platform to personalize the experience.

Partial view of detailed reviewer profile

Personalization is the Differentiator

Viewpoints approaches reviewing from a slightly different (or enhanced) angle, with a participatory architecture for accreditation. Users are asked to complete unique "I AM" tags that let others know about their traits, personal information and their relationship to the things they review. These profiles are intended to "personalize" the reviews and promote trust and connectedness, in an otherwise clinical venue. Sites like Epinions show product feedback and some data, but the personalization factor is minimal. Viewpoints hopes to capitalize on the power of in-depth person to person discourse.

Perhaps the best way to evaluate Viewpoints' effectiveness right now is to rate their features and the degree to which the site addresses its own goals and hurdles:

• Web 2.0 Technology - Fair, a low tech site by Web 2.0 standards. UI enhancements/features should be addressed.
• Credibility - Undetermined, some reviews are whimsical while others "appear" relevant and meaningful
• Navigation - Good, being of simple design the site is adequately linked - A straight journey from signup to editing
• Writing Editor - Good, a simple but effective edit UI - Sufficient, but more flexibility would benefit reviewers and readers
• Categories - Excellent, with 20 main categories and dozens of sub-categories - This could be displayed better and expanded
• Content - Fair, the number and quality of the reviews is not there yet. The "personalization" effect takes time and valid reviews
• Profiles - Very Good, this would be excellent except for the overall "low tech" feel. Importation of personal data would be good.
• Ads - Fair, Googlish and prevalent ads. Some creativity needed to reduce obtrusiveness to the relevant ads.
• Graphics/Media - Good, as mentioned it is not Web TV, but the integration of Vlog or simple video would help
• Community - Very Good, the community corner accesses: mail, blog, friends, rewards, support and feedback
• Accountability - Fair, the members are the caretakers of value for the site. Attrition or negative/positive feedback - then admin

Example of a members review

Pros

The site's 100,000 users have made this into a real reviewing community and they have done a great job of getting across the personality message as well. This concept (or rather the application of a social norm) of "personalizing" objectivity it very valid - in fact this is what Web 2.0 is based on. The platform for expanding a great review community is stable and there is plenty of room for growth. Matt reflected on the "scaling" of Viewpoints and iterated that their backing and strategy reflects patience and getting it right before numbers. The simplicity of the site lends itself to easy discoverability and I found no glitches to speak of. Though many of the reviewers are obviously not experts, as Matt expressed in our conversation, the sincere experiences and first hand knowledge of "known" or more personalized people carries a "special:" weight.

Would you trust this person? The top of a review noting tags

Cons

Trust is one heck of a rare commodity today, and building a credible reviewer base is going to take some time. I was a little taken back by the fact that Matt told me there was no intended monitoring or quality aspect, other than a basic thumbs up/down or reporting system. The perfect review site in my mind would have a personal approach backed by solid qualified onsite review.

Technologically the site is Web 1.0 with a twist, as widgets and other reviewer resources are not abundant yet. Aside from more advanced and numerous tools, Viewpoints has one big hill to climb. Even outdated sites like Epinions attract millions of users because of their of credibility - however miniscule or outdated. Viewpoints has to get the message out that there is value and truth to their reviews.

Conclusion

The great news for Viewpoints is that the competition is either fragmented or less interactive. Sites like Yelp are localized or more narrowly focused, Consumer Reports is a pay site and Epinions is far from a community. If the idea of what Matt called their "Center of Gravity"- or rich reviewer profiles - catches on, then Viewpoints could have a very big impact.

However, the power of focused blogs, enhanced browsers and other tools of late may also impact this niche. The expertise and credibility of already excellent reviews (blogs, forums, info sites or .orgs) across the Web are Viewpoints' biggest competitors in my view. Ultimately, the viral nature of communities and the negative impact of fragmented, SEO'd or hyped reviews elsewhere should provide this company new users in a steady stream.

Flock History and Version 0.7

Flock launched their social media browser amid a flurry of hype back in 2005. The innovation for the Flock browser was originally billed as a marriage of social media and Web 2.0 functionality. It initially met with mixed reviews, as Flock fell victim to over-stimulated user expectations and “too much” attention. Version 0.7, released June of 2006, was essentially not a great enough departure from Firefox - and even with its innovative features, many users considered Flock as just a Firefox clone.

The browser's “less than perfect” entry into the market has not daunted the over 1.5 million users who have downloaded it so far. Version 0.9 is really an overhaul of the UI - focused on “discoverability”, or essentially relieving the pain involved in integrating a new browser into a user’'s routine. As Steve O'’Hear said in a great article about Flock on ZDNet, Flock is not simply a passive browser experience, but a “write”-capable platform designed to enhance the social media experience. The list of v0.9 additions and upgrades is too vast to list completely, but Flock has added or upgraded features for: people aspects, the general features, media bar, favorites, feeds, accounts, the Web clipboard, blog editor, search and uploader aspects - all on a broad scale. 

Discovering Flock

Flock is a very elegant and well organized browser. I am as good a “test rat” as there is, having been so anchored to IE over the years, so working with a new browser for some days proved illuminating. The first thing I noticed about Flock was the media bar, so prominently displayed at the top. This bar has superb flexibility and is the heart of the video and image interface. Searching and acting on the various services is a fairly "right in your face" function, as are most of the other inherent functions. Shawn and I talked about the need for reducing the amount of clicks needed to work with applications; this aspect was one of their main goals. From what I can tell, virtually every Flock task can be completed in one or two clicks - and typing is limited.

Media Bar in action

As an example: adding my WordPress blog was a two-click action. Posting straight from the Flock UI is also simple and the resultant postings looked as if they had been created in WP. Indeed every feature I tested proved to be a derivative of Wordpress. Flock has done an excellent job of making the "discovery" experience enjoyable and easy. What is less evident initially is the amount of time and pain saved in performing what Flock treats as simple click functions; where Fx or IE require more clicks. The bottom line is that an old IE user like me learned more advanced features and functions over 3 or 4 days, than I probably know about IE in years of use.

Best of Flock

There is not a lot to dislike about Flock. My favorite features tend to be smaller elements, but the most incomparable feature of this browser is its RSS display. Adding feeds is performed in the same "one click" fashion as other elements and the feed sidebar is excellent - but the RSS Reader really sets Flock apart in that full excerpts (illustrated below), single column, headlines and double column formats can be customized.

The media bar and the added functions within it are excellent as well. Scrolling playlists are not new - but simple, searchable, drag and drop versions do not abound and the Flock version is flexible. The current searchable services are Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket and Truveo; and results can also be filtered. The 'view as a mini' function, combined with drag and drop and the mouse-over preview shown in the next screenshot, make this simple and fun to use.

RSS for R/WW configured to "full" article view

Little Things Mean A Lot

I tend to like "the details" or smaller elements of these startups, because developers who pay attention to the little things tend to excel at making the more obvious features too. I liked Flock the moment I noticed that I could change my search engine. You will note that the options bar on the My World page displays several search engines and that I have chosen hakia as the default. Favorites are segregated into local and online categories, and they are also viewable in tree form as the graphic below points out. From mouse-over descriptions of virtually every button, to the picture up there in the corner of my son from my Flickr account, Flock has covered off all the little details.

My World with media bar collapsed

Conclusion

Despite the attention to detail in v0.9, there is currently a limited number of external services supported. Outside of this one negative aspect (and the fact that the tabs remind me too much of Firefox), Flock could be the most impressive browser of them all. In our discussion, Shawn overloaded me with information about upcoming features and improvements. Honestly, this version has far too many features to touch upon, but the partner-friendly business model and version 0.9's integrated search - which shortcuts searches internally to provide faster and more relevant results - are just two of a dozen or more great aspects to this version.

Flock is targeted at social networking users, but if more external services are forthcoming and development continues to differentiate Flock from the others, it will be a compelling product for its target users.

There is not a lot of information about MyLifeBrand's development team. Several blogs have done periphery stories about some of their promotions, but details are hard to come by. MyLifeBrand is apparently a Seattle-based company and their Founder and CEO Jeff Jani's name was mentioned in a press release via Business Wire on the 29th. The company has had several promotions, including one featuring a Kelly Clarkson community, a gamer community creation contest and a virtual town hall featuring Presidential hopeful Sen. Chris Dodd.

The Basics

MyLifeBrand offers users the basic tools for communication, content management, sharing and media storage. Creating a profile, writing a blog, using internal mail, importing friends from other sites and posting to the community wall are all simple functions. Users can also go mobile via a WAP interface and external IM is possible through a Meebo.com embed. I found no real issues with any of these standard tools, but navigating between some elements was circuitous. The profile editor of MLB is much better than that of MySpace, and has fields and functions for a wide range of input. A horde of other Web 2.0 functions from Google Maps to the upcoming MyLifeTV almost prove to be too much. The media gallery illustrated below is very good, but could use drag-and-drop capability and organizational utility.

Video Gallery illustrating my 3 video uploads

The Heart of Community

The directory list for MLB is already impressive, and for an alpha test the developers and the community have assembled some excellent content. The real value of this site is not just in its ability to import other networks, but in the special relationship between personal and business communities. The relative segregation of communities and ironic proximity to business entities is potentially a big plus for MLB. If the community can accept this proximity to for-profit sites, then a rather unique balance might be struck for advertising. A user can essentially create any kind of community - based wholly, partially or cumulatively on their other sites via a field-fill UI. Once again we are visiting a startup wholly dependent on users to generate success with the quality, number and popularity of their communities.

A business community for one of England's Premier Soccer teams

Other Features

Most Web 2.0 sites I have tested have become geometrically more innovative, intuitive and usable. MLB has a big compliment of widgets from Wikiseek for information, to YouTube for media. But compared to other sites like Zude or Second Brain, this site almost seems outdated. Users can vote on various elements, customize their communities, use a chat interface and perform a range of other tasks. However, will just having even dozens of these types of capabilities be enough? Adding video and other media, talking with friends and syndicating creative aspects is becoming the status quo in this venue. MLB is also offering rewards in the form of points that users can redeem for money or services, but unless the rewards are significant I cannot really advocate this as a marquee feature.

Profile page with functions

Conclusion

MyLifeBrand is a very new startup with some excellent possibilities. The social networking aspects and/or individual tools do differentiate the site in some aspects from MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and others.

The biggest drawback I see is that cross domain drag-and-drop and other emerging technologies may render MLB's tools obsolete. Illustrating imported communities "in frame" is also not a very popular aspect for many users and I much prefer the object oriented aggregation sites for this type of utility.

The simple insertion of social convergence and offering vague challenges to users is simply not enough in the long run. Alpha sites are always wrought with glitches and small interface problems - and MLB proved to be no worse than others in this regard. I think the big problem for MyLifeBrand will be in catching up technologically, in order to maximize their great potential for becoming a viable convergence site or aggregator. As I see it, what the developers do next and how fast they do it may be crucial to the success of MyLifeBrand.

Note: at the end of this review, we give you a link and access code to test out this private beta.

5g and Zude

Fifth Generation Systems’' (5g) founders Jim McMiel and Steve Repetti have utilized Steve’'s decade long development of 5g to create the ultimate personal web experience. The magnitude of this vision is obvious, because 5g is developing a platform that will cross domains, allow total customization and essentially incorporate any Web media into a user’'s creation. Repetti'’s unique software combined with the FifthGen Engine in the vehicle of Zude, allow for ultra high performance integration and the simplification of complex operations. Zude is a privately funded startup based in Roslyn, New York and backed by $5 million in private funding.

What Does Zude Offer?

The most innovative tool in Zude is the cross domain drag-and-drop. I felt rather foolish after testing the interface for a few hours, before Matt Wulkan Director of Product Marketing mailed me and told me to simply drag whatever I wanted onto my pages. Beyond this great aspect of the product, Zude enables users to utilize these features:

Drop Zone Technology - Take images from anywhere; desktop, websites or viewers

Drag and Drop Wallpaper - Create wallpaper from any image and customize

Add Pages - Users can build multiple pages rather than a simple online profile

Text Boxes - Text exactly where and how a user wants it

Advanced Properties - Add borders, headers, footers, shadows and transparency to images, text and other objects

File Manager - Add Widgets and gadgets from Zude, Google, Yahoo etc. Simple drag and drop does it all without the need to write a line of code (unless you want to).

Templates - Modify existing Zude templates or create and submit your own

Tag - Everything you add is an object and can be tagged for user defined searchability

Rate - Ratings can be used to determine appropriateness, or as a measure of popularity

Community - Zude already has an intricate community and categorized content areas like music (featuring Amy Lee of Evanescence), Video, News, Business, Sports, Travel, Night Life, People and others.

What Can Zude Do?

15 minutes after Matt emailed me I had Read/WriteWeb and a whole YouTube page of surfing videos on my pages. Zude'’s home page says the service "“enhances and extends a users online presence, empowers personalization and turbo-charges creativity". Indeed Zude blurs the line between desktop application and web, for either the novice or guru. This platform has virtually every Web 2.0 tool I have tested in one form or another, and the space is fully customizable. Object oriented sites are notoriously easy to organize and this one combined this ability with unlimited content aggregation and flexibility.

Testing Elements

Initially I sized new elements via the advanced properties pop-up menus, but I found it much simpler to stretch or move them via cross domain drag-and-drop. The screenshot below renders one of my pages after I dragged a YouTube surfing video to match my template. Note the transparent pulldown.

The YouTube element is a functioning page, simply sized

Feel the Power

I decided to see if I could kidnap Read/WriteWeb, so the next series of screenshots illustrate dragging the R/WW page onto my Zude page - un-scaled and followed by the fully functional tailored version, and a pulldown I copied from the previous page. The interesting thing about this is that theoretically every one of my sites could be added as links, buttons or fully functioning pages in just about any configuration imaginable - to one page or a series of pages.

Dragging R/WW into Zude

R/WW fully sized and functional

Conclusion

There are two main elements that separate Zude from Netvibes and Pageflakes. Zude is not simply a homepage where favorites are visited and utilized, it has an unlimited depth of possible pages and uses. Secondly, Zude uses a sophisticated and fast cross domain drag-and-drop aspect to simplify and dynamically change the way people add content to their pages One really amazing thing to me is that this development is still in private beta. I can'’t wait to see what the finished product looks like.

Try it out: If you would like to test Zude, they have provided us with a link and the access code (the letters only: zudeme) to sign up. Be advised that Zude now supports Firefox and IE, but pop-up and cookie settings may have to be adjusted.

New Wave

P2P, MP3 and word of mouth avenues for reviewing new artists and content may provide the stimulus for a new age in the music industry according to the Fairtilizer developers, and they intend to position themselves in the gap as a conduit for excellent content. According to their “about” section people need a “trusted’ filter to capture great music, while artists want and need a real DIY amplifier to push their music out of. The Fairtilzer “track centric” methodology, though not a new innovation, does solve the pain of buying 10 terrible songs to get two great cuts. Fairtilizer, a  Geneva, Switzerland based company, was founded by Olivier Rosset a veteran of the music industry. Fairtilizer business details are not yet available as the company is seeking additional investors in these early stages.

The Method

Tracks submitted to Fairtilizer appear in the “Upcoming Section” where the tracks that get the most support make it to the Charting Section. Based on a member’s status (member, junior member or senior member) the tracks appear in a buffer zone where the community members and an Editorial Board validate the quality and the ownership of the track. Members can see the tracks they have uploaded on their “My Tracks” page and each track is labeled with its status as it traverses the Buffer Zone, Upcoming Section or Charting section. In short, Fairtilizer is first a filter for new artists and listeners to connect.

The Interface

Fairtilizer uses a simple, clean interface that offers good navigation. The site is relatively quick compared to some and organization is straightforward. Standard tools for any Web 2.0 offering include: an embed feature, my playlist, my tracks, ratings, my votes, my profile and very good searchability either worldwide or localized. Searching or browsing on Fairtilizer is easy and though the artist submissions are not overly numerous there is a good representation there already. Sometimes simple is just more elegant and this is music not video man. Sharing via email, embed and RSS are options and my tracks downloaded to my iTunes player flawlessly.

It’s About the Music

Honestly, a dozen sites have better atmosphere but music is about audio for most. I must say that Fairtilizer has some killer tracks from a variety of exceptional artist fro around the globe. As an example for my tastes there are representations for virtually every genre, and a few in particular took up about 2 hours of my visit. Two great vocal standouts grabbed my attention, one being Lucky Joy who belts out lyrics ala Zepplin with a song titled “On the road” that can be heard on the artist’s MySpace site. The second fine vocal artist I discovered was WalkTheTalk (Will Halliday) an Australian artist whose lyrics were not spot on, but singing the track "Draino" demonstrated a water smooth voice that can be tuned in via his web site too. Other genres are filled with fantastic talent like Jazz/Ambient/Experimentalist Takeshi Nishimoto and at least two dozen others that provided and show and a surprise for this test pilot.

The Landscape

Fairtilizer is entering a venue that is fairly competitive with a new unique sites coming out with some frequency. This does not necessarily exclude success for this alpha startup but it does me their game and particularly their content is going to have to shine. Fuzz just came out this month, at least a dozen other similar sites already exist, and I am testing a very unique and interesting startup called VLES (or Virtual Lower East Side) that has the makings of something special. One bonus for this service is that all the tracks are full length with no previews or samples and I am sure Last.Fm fans will be happy to learn this.

Conclusion

There will always be room for artist oriented showcases like Fairtilizer but the bottom line of any of them will be staying afloat. Traffic and monetization being the key elements, these sites will have to carve niches for hungry music lovers and attract artists either via their constituents or some form of enumeration.  Fairtilizer has some stupendous new talent (and I should add some Rock Star losers too), but simplicity and some basic tools may not cut it in the long run. In all fairness, this is a very new startup that appears to have a good vision. We will keep you updated on their progress; meanwhile if you can get in it is worth some time to kick back to some great tunes.

J.F. Groff, CTO of Fairtilizer, graciously offered R/WW some invitations to this alpha testing phase - so please let us know in the comments if you would like to check it out.

A Thriving Wikia

Sometimes I think we take the very best of the Web for granted. Wikia and its renowned cousin Wikipedia are often the most valuable sources of information we use, yet they always seem to be upstaged by more mercurial sites. Wikia is a for-profit company founded by Jimmy Wales, one of the Web’'s most renowned entrepreneurs and the founder of Wikipedia. Wikia was originally founded under the name Wikicities by Wales and Co-Founder Angela Beesley in 2004.

The Wikia communities create free content via the MediaWikia software. CEO Gil Penchina reiterated the vision of Wikia in our conversation yesterday: “To be the definitive, unbiased resource of the Web.” According to Penchina, Wikia is exactly on course with the growth rate Wikipedia has demonstrated and the site currently receives from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of visitors each day.

Wikia vs. Wikipedia

Aesthetics and Content View-ability

The Wikia site has always been rather striking and it remains so, in that sort of familiar Wiki way we have grown accustomed to. The two column format actually helps one to spatially organize the information better and therefore navigate more easily. Centering the content and moving the tools and edit functions to the right adds greatly to the user’s viewable content area. It takes a minute or two to get comfortable with, after being familiar with the 3 column layout, but it really does allow more space for the tons of categories and navigation links. New users will view the new skin, but all users have the option to revert to the traditional Wikia skin at any time.

New Skin

Tools and Web 2.0

Based on user feedback gained via polls, Wikia has supplied what their users voted as their most desirable improvements/additions. The core tools and links combined with graphical images and new elements have been consolidated on the right to simplify navigation, add function and to help new users to find their way around Wikia.

Tagging

I noticed that these tool elements can also be dragged and dropped to a user’s preference too. Outside of simplified navigation and reorganized spatial considerations, Wikia users will find themselves at home as processes have simply been streamlined and accentuated with the YouTube, sharing and voting aspects.

Tool Widget

Notes and Conclusions

These recent changes might seem a little underwhelming to many people, but it is very important to take note of what Wikia is in relation to our more “Hollywood” type communities. As Gil mentioned early in our conversation, the goal of this community is to become everyone’s resource for “unbiased” information and online experiences, within their personal interests. Gil told me that Wikia currently has over 40,000 pages of content relating to Star Wars alone and another 33,000 dealing with WOW. These subjects may not be for everyone, but the shear weight of all that information on relatively obscure topics is illustrative of a community dedicated to people and their passions.

I asked Gil if Wikia is where he thought it should be right now, and he related a question he asked Jimmy Wales when interviewing for his current position. Gil asked Wales if he thought lightning could strike twice in the same place, to which Wales obviously replied yes. Gil’'s answer to me reflected his genuine appreciation and amazement at yet another lightning strike at Wikia. These visions of Jimmy Wales’ occupy what could be argued as the true heart of user generated excellence. In the final analysis, Wikipedia and Wikia are about the hundreds of thousands of talented and inspired people who make up a great community. What is Wikia? Think of Wikipedia as a great reference book in an immense library, while Wikia is the library.

VeohTV homepage

About Veoh

I originally reported on Veoh back in February and several times since, and I have always been impressed with Veoh's somewhat different platform as compared to the other video sharing sites. The service is a diverse suite for collecting, publishing and watching HD Quality video from a wide range of sources. These Veoh services, in combination with the Veoh player, essentially transform online video into a cinema experience for its users. Veoh started in 2004 out of the vision of CEO Dmitry Shapiro, and is backed by some of the most influential technology investors in the world; including Spark Capital, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, Time Warner Inc. and Shelter Capital Partners.

Open vs. Closed Systems

One of the paradigms of Web TV is revealed in comparing two distinct types of systems for utilizing video content. Joost has been something of a “poster child” and what many consider the best Internet TV service so far. Regardless of how we might be inspired by this fantastic innovation Joost is, as Dmitry described it, a “closed” system where programming and function are essentially static. Veoh’s assertion for Web TV is hardcore open source and a departure from the ideology that browser based applications are perfect for all services, and in that it provides a platform where programming is determined wholly by the user. Joost and other video services essentially attempt to utilize the browser, which is really poorly designed to support quality video.

Put simply, Joost is a finite system where excellent programming can be viewed and manipulated only to a slight degree, while the Veoh service I witnessed today allows users comparatively limitless and diversified choices. As an example let me to illustrate several features that differentiate a closed online TV service from an open one, and a very good application from a killer one.

Advanced Features

Based on this preview of VeohTV users will experience superb performance from a single interface; where searching, browsing and viewing Internet content has been made radically simple. The downloadable VeohTV viewer essentially acts as a browser, but with video player efficiency and speed. After installation, VeohTV launches immediately into a cable TV type channel guide. Users are allowed to browse channels such as CBS, NBC, Road & Track and many others in a similar way they might on their TV sets. With the advanced interface, video is streamed either directly from the host site or delayed via a virtual DVR aspect (your PC is your DVR). A simple connect to an HD TV renders all content viewable remotely controllable on the big screen, and Veoh also has set top device integration deals on the horizon. Below is an expanded list of features:

Channels - Browse for content by channel

Search - Keyword search for relevance from literally thousands of websites

Favorites - Subscribe to content from favorite TV shows, channels and producers or download and store favorites

Recommended - Advanced recommendation engine suggests content from viewing habits and preferences

Interact Mode - Interact with dozens of widgets while viewing content. Services from Amazon, eBay, Gmail, Hotmail, Craigslist and Alexa are supported with others being added continually.

VeohTV Channel Interface

Management of Quality

This service is a great innovation and aggregation of much of what we have seen across several platforms so far this year. The VeohTV library utilizes drag-and-drop functionality to organize and create playlists. The download capability emulates a DVR function and can be set to automatically save preferred content. Essentially Veoh has created an individual TV station for every user, but with the tools to mix and mash content in just about any way they desire. I was particularly taken with the "interaction" mode because of the ability to multi-task; and Dmitry illustrated a cool aspect wherein a searched network could be followed with relevance via stock ticker or other widget in real time. Finally, the quality of the player and the HD content is quite excellent and video streams much more smoothly overall than during many of my visits to Joost. VeohTV is true cinema quality, full screen video with all the features of home entertainment.

Interactive Mode

Conclusion

Is it a Joost killer? Joost is an excellent company and I doubt they are quivering in fear, but they are going to have to do some "Matrix like" bullet dodging in my opinion. In comparing VeohTV to Joost there are a couple of areas where Joost still maintains an apparent advantage. Joost content is obviously excellent and the quality of broadcasts there is very stable, which illuminates one of VeohTV's only real weaknesses - the system is dependent on the quality of sometimes less than excellent online video. This is not problematic with content  from NBC or other major networks, but the user's "hands on" filtering will determine a quality library. The ads were a major concern of mine and I found Joost to be an early leader in upscale and unobtrusive advertising. Dmitry reflected a rather perfect logic in response to this concern, in that VeohTV will be able to target ads that will be relevant to individual users and therefore inherently less obtrusive.

Dmitry's team has made an excellent innovation that seems to have left no stone unturned. The beta testing of this service will be very limited initially and you can sign up for an invitation here. We will also have a very limited number of invitations to test VeohTV in the very near future and we will keep you advised on developments.

A screenshot of the Powerlabs interface [Ed: does that dashboard really have the P-word in its menu?!]

The second Powersets query to be released

The Powerlabs program will take the Web community inside Powerset's development as an ongoing feedback and information portal, for groups of people who Co-founder Steve Newcomb terms "Powerlabbers".

Natural Search

Powerset is one of the most anticipated startups of 2007, but so little has really been revealed from behind their doors, and news coverage of the company essentially came to a standstill back in March. Powerset is a Silicon Valley company that received $12.5 million in series A funding back in November of 2006. The company founders - CEO Barney Pell, COO Steve Newcomb and Product Architect Lorenzo Thione - envision utilizing breakthrough technologies to provide more intuitive searches via natural language. The goal and end point are not dissimilar from those of Hakia and some others, but the technology and "middleware" will be vastly different, as we shall see. Hopefully our coverage of the Powerlabs program will enable us to differentiate Powerset from other search endeavors.

Labs

Powerlabs has been established to inform the Web 2.0 community and to gain feedback during the intermediate and subsequent stages of the engine's development. Powerset is following the track of other extraordinary startups in that they are working incrementally, meticulously and with feedback generated by the Internet community. A small group of people will test drive elements as they come online and the numbers of Powerlabbers will increase as scalability permits.

Now

The big news today is that "it is on it's way"; and we will bring you a ringside seat to developments as they happen. Mark Johnson, Powerlabs Product Manager mailed us today with Steve's latest and there will be weekly updates and goodies for Powerset fans. So for now, we wanted to provide you with the very first inside look at Powerset in development. We are looking forward to the design competitions, demo tests and a whole series of surprises that these "rocket scientists" have in store. You can sign up for Powerlabs here and also see a cool video sneak peek here.

The View

Be advised the image above is of the Powerlabs interface, but the Powerset engine will be much more typical of a search engine like Hakia (unless of course the community can come up with a better suggestion, and I already have one).

Yumondo is being developed by the German Web technology company Metaversum. CEO Jochen Hummel, a Silicon Valley veteran, is the founder and is backed by an impressive development team.

Yumondo (Meaning: Your World)

This site has all the earmarks of communities like MySpace and other clones, but it is focused more on what I would call "local mental maps" of the individual users. Good sharing, connection and tools are some of the basic community features of Yumondo - as is expected. But the focus has been realigned to target favorite activities and places in the physical world as well as the digital one. Users are immediately identified with their physical community on signup by name, and simple buttons labeled My Home, People, Places, Events and Things symbolize the simple message of community. Without going too far into the ethereal, I believe that people really think of their communities in the same rather compartmentalized and ordered way that this site is organized.

The Comfort of the Familiar

The site design is simple. The UI is not extraordinary except that it is perfectly usable and easy to understand. A Yumondo user can easily browse or search people, places, events and things - though data is very sparse at this stage. Google maps is utilized, as are tags - and a tag cloud gives relevant results for "nearby" sub categories.

Yumondo searchable tag cloud and Google maps

Sharing Events, Places and Fun

My first impression on realizing the "vision" or methodology behind Yumondo was that it would turn into a rather shallow local bar or club locator. But after creating something really special to share with our readers, I realized the actual utility and potential worth of the service. Not only can a user provide excellent suggestions and locations for visitors and friends, but groups of people can also share moments and events in the context of 'community' or place. This is perhaps the greatest aspect of an idea like Yumongo, the mental and emotional mapping of what one finds to be excellent or worthy in life - rather than in just either dimension of it (physical or digital). The image below is of an exclusive and excellent resort on the Atlantic coast of Georgia where I live. The simple creation of this place combined with the "homey" context is what sets this community apart. I expect this aspect is by design and know others will be pleasantly surprised by it. I had fun sharing the extravagance of a legendary and beautiful place near my home with other users.

My Brunswick Yumondo showing the familiar profile, simple buttons and a world class spa

Pros and Cons

It would be wholly unfair to over scrutinize any startup this early in its development. Yumondo is very well thought out at this point and there is user enjoyment and utility. The geographic, cultural and emotional aspects of what we too easily term 'community' these days is truly inherent inside this website.

Cons? Any web 2.0 community is reliant on getting users and traffic - and Yumondo is especially susceptible to this. The lack of video sharing and other media offerings is a drawback as well, but certainly this will be added at some point.

Conclusion

Yumondo is a social networking community of the next order. The developers have termed their refinement of an established idea "urban stylesharing". I suppose this is as good a tag as any, for a great place to mirror our actual communities. The simplicity and familiarity of the tools and services will make users feel at home. After a little time inside the site, any user will start to view places like MySpace as rather disjointed and fragmented by comparison. But make no mistake about it, this startup will need to get participation and network effects early on.

To be honest, I never thought I would write another positive review of a beta test for a social community. Well, we should all learn to "never say never", because the inevitable will happen. Yumondo has great potential in my view, and as I have said before the key ingredient to its success is 'you'. Sometimes that is a tall order, but I hope other people enjoy sharing places as much as I did.

Particls was launched in January of 2006 by Chris Saad, Co-Founder and CEO of Faraday Media, and Co-Founder Ashley Angell. The company has been in private alpha with over 2000 testers and now public beta promises to further refine Particls.

Features on the Consumer Side

Perhaps it is best to describe what Particles is not, in order to paint an accurate picture of the development. The service is decidedly not a newsreader, but it is an advanced alerts platform. The information service operates in the background and is secondary to a user's primary tasks - but it still allows for instant access to critical information.

Particls is not a widget or gadget engine, because the output adapters are each designed to consume varying levels of user attention. The service basically ranks incoming information by personal relevance to the user and reduces unwanted data input.

Particls ticker and basic UI

Basic Functions

• Instant alerts prioritized via RSS
• Desktop collapsible ticker
• Sharing read and highly rated items
• Add on adapters
• Simple feed subscription
• Automatic headline location

Advanced Features

• Right-click actions - A toggle function that allows for Digg, Reddit, Sphere and Del.ico.us submission. The function also allows for rating of content for input to user relevance.
• Tear-offs allow the pop up alerts to be placed on the desktop like post it notes that can be read later.
• Image support alerts - Alerts contain images so users can subscribe to photo streams and graphics via Flickr and other services.
• Auto Away - Detects when a user is away from the computer and holds alerts.
• Auto subscriber - This aspect learns user preferences and automatically subscribes them.
• Interest Searches - Automatically sets up searches for personally relevant Internet data.
• Auto-detected Interests - Saves browser history/attention data to refine content display.
• RSS sharing - Allows sharing of highly rated items via RSS via widgets, free readers and other RSS compatible services. This feature can be added to a blog sidebar to inform readers of items getting a bloggers attention.

Particls UI, ticker, right click and other advanced features

As you can see, Particles is a rather more intelligent utility than a simple reader or widget. The heart of this innovation's philosophy is defined by the "Policy of Diminishing Attention Consumption", best described graphically below.

Diminishing Attention Consumption

Developer/Publisher Side

Particls allows developers to maximize utility through SubscriptionHelpers (to let users grab new XMP data from Soft APIs, re-skin the ticker to personal user preferences, write input/output adapters) and via the inTouch programs. Developers have two levels of customized news and alerts systems for their readers/subscribers. These custom embeddable widgets extend a site's reach and branding capabilities while providing second tier users Particls' innovative features.

InTouch Basic allows for simple integration of Particls by simply typing the URL to RSS/Atom Feed or OPML and copying the embed code. The inTouch Partner program provides more advanced integration, customization and flexibility. Particls can be skinned to re-brand the service, alert users to more content from the host site, gain insight into readers' interests and offer revenue sharing to partners. Both versions of inTouch are free services supported by ads, but Particls is also offering a partner version free of ads at a low subscription fee.

Conclusion

Particls is a simple service to use, but it is also a complex and innovative set of rich tools for filtering data. The re-branding capability for developers is of particular importance, as revenue sharing and content distribution will allow for superb growth potential. From a site developer/blogger perspective, Particls seems almost indispensable. Particls is the culmination of Web 2.0 technologies we have seen directed at solving our growing data overload problem. RSS and feeds will never be the same after today in my view, as the bar has been raised substantially by Particls. Potential developers and users can lean more about extending Particls on these wiki pages and in Tangler.

Second Brain is a fascinating startup now in testing and accessible by invitation only. The service is a personal library where people aggregate all their creations, services and favorites - and then share and/or publish them online. Second Brain was founded by Lars G. Teigen who also co-founded Making Waves, one of Norway and Poland's leading design and technology services. The project completed its prototype and alpha stages back in November 2006 and the private beta was released in early February of this year. Second Brain's vision is to be the central service for collecting and sharing knowledge in 2008.

The Second Brain site organizes the chaos people feel from utilizing content across a wide variety of services, like YouTube, del.icio.us, Flickr and others. Ultimately Second Brain is trying to fill the niche between people's need to organize and use data, and the need for services to attract and retain users. Second Brain looks at Web 2.0 and beyond as a network of mostly small independent applications serving the needs of the market. Essentially, they see the Internet as a widely distributed desktop, albeit a huge one.

Collecting and Managing Data

Capturing data from online services using Second Brain is without peer - e.g. adding YouTube as a service to aggregate, sends a user's favorites nearly instantaneously to the library at Second Brain. Including all existing tags, comments and thumbnails of the videos. They are just links in reality, but now actually manageable and easily identifiable ones. Adding del.icio.us bookmarks was just as fast, and the aggregated links are displayed in the library complete with visible web page thumbnails and existing tags intact. Editing the data is carried out at the external service, while organization and sharing etc. is done from the Second Brain UI. The drag and drop function combined with a pop up editing tool at Second Brain will help people create meaningful groups of data. Below is an illustration of a collection of del.icio.us articles, created via drag-and-drop and showing a collection of various media and the note editor.

Archiving Data

Archiving data into the library and then into collections is very straightforward. Adding content either individually or via current services (YouTube, Google Docs, Flickr, Picassa, del.icio.us and Blue Dot) is really just a click away. With the addition of more and more services to aggregate, Second Brain will eventually offer users an unparalleled library from across the Internet. The site's blog currently projects new music and feed services within two weeks. So, Second Brain is adding services and function incrementally in order to methodically test and implement each aspect, via feedback and bug fixes. The Second Brain representations of links provide users with a very useful and easy way of dealing with archived materials.

Search and Organization

The UI contains a "Collection Editor" that allows for detailed tagging and description of data from the various services. This editor will receive a major upgrade soon that will allow users to relate notes, comments and content into a visual mind map. The search aspect of Second Brain is currently dependent on using tags to find data, but the addition of global search is one of the next upgrades. Using free text will allow much greater capability for searching all the online content a user has. Tags will be used to refine these searches for even greater relevance, and users will save time in finding those elusive bits of data currently scattered all over the Web and their PCs.

Global search will provide relevance to searches. As you can see above, I made a combination containing image, article link and video - for a potential collection.

Results of a Web 2.0 tag search revealed several articles via del.icio.us, as per below:

Sharing and Community

Embedding is essential for connecting our experiences on the Web, and Second Brain has approached this by allowing users the same utility on external sites as they have at Second Brain. Users will be able to embed collections on their sites or blogs, but in a much more creative and innovative way. The collections can combine any combination of video, pages, documents or virtually any data in a mashup - to be placed on any site the user chooses. A simplistic example of this is a usable collection of favorite videos. Users at Second Brain can also add other people's collections, as well as share their own collections publicly or privately. The social aspect of Second Brain has not been fully developed yet, but interaction and feedback from users will certainly add to this dimension. The data aggregation and library management aspects are the priority right now, but according to Lars Teigen new profile enhancements and other additions are on the immediate horizon.

Conclusion

Second Brain provides a win-win solution for users and services, by helping to collect and organize information efficiently. The potential for targeted advertising at Second Brain is evident and if services are smart they will collaborate with Second Brain to effectively "tag team" users with subtle, relevant and targeted advertising. I cannot determine the effectiveness of the global search aspect yet, but a really advanced search mechanism will provide Second Brain users unparalleled power in organizing and manipulating their Internet experience. The biggest advantages of Second Brain are time saving, content retention without loss and the reduction of information chaos for users.

Imagine Second Brain hooked up with Slashdot, Digg, Metafilter, Netscape, MetaCafe and about 100 other services. This collage of user interests cannot only be organized somewhat semantically, but spatially as well. The ability to SEE these link destinations cannot be overstated here. Second Brain could well become a must have service if development continues on its current course.

We all love being enthusiastic about innovation, though we are often disappointed with many startups. Second Brain does something no other site can claim - that is, help other web sites and services while providing value to its own users. Second Brain approaches Grove's Law from a different angle, by providing innovation that allows users familiarity and comfort, while allowing new technological function. But check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.