Popular tech news aggregator Techmeme has launched a new mobile version of the site built for the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre, and Motorola Droid. The new version, which can be found at http://techmeme.com/m, is a lot easier to read on your phone than the regular site. It even includes individual pages for each Techmeme headline, which show all of the relevant discussion links. Separate pages for each story is something that even the full Techmeme site doesn't currently provide.
New mobile versions are also available for Gabe Rivera's other sites, Memeorandum, Ballbug, and WeSmirch. Techmeme has been ramping up its efforts lately, hiring three additional editors for the site. That brings its headcount to six employees.
I tend to check Techmeme throughout the day as I'm sure many of you do. A lot of the time, I am looking at the site from my phone. This new mobile update makes browsing Techmeme on the go a far more pleasant experience. Since this is not a native app for any platform, the new mobile site is viewable from a variety of phones, widening the potential audience. I can say with almost certainty that the release of Techmeme Mobile will increase the site's mobile readership.
TweetDeck's new Facebook support.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)TweetDeck, the popular Twitter app for the iPhone, was pulled from the Apple App Store on Monday due to a crippling crash bug. An update was quickly resubmitted to Apple and the new version (1.1.1) is now available for download (iTunes Link). The new version includes Facebook integration, video uploading, and support for Twitter trending topics.
The Facebook support in TweetDeck for iPhone works very well, allowing you to add columns from Facebook by either selecting a feed of all your friends or separating them into groups. The feed support is restricted to status updates, so you cannot see when new photos or events are posted, but comments and Likes on status updates are visible. It also allows users to comment or Like a post from the app as well as post a message on someone's wall. Of course, Facebook's own iPhone app is a much more robust offering, but it is nice to have data from Facebook and Twitter centralized in one app.
TweetDeck now also offers video recording and uploading for iPhone 3GS owners. This service is supported by 12seconds, which has an iPhone app of its own. This type of short-form video plays nicely with the overall concept of Twitter and should help to cut down on upload times when posting new updates.
Additional features included in this update are the inclusion of Twitter trending topics, the ability to cross-post updates to Twitter and Facebook, nearby tweets, bit.ly support, and landscape composing. These are all features that make a lot of sense for TweetDeck and were surely highly requested.
A nice video of the new features, put together by the TweetDeck team, is included below.
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Twitter announced late Wednesday that it is starting a limited test of a new feature that displays the number of new tweets in your timeline since you last refreshed. This works in much the same way as the new tweet notification on the search page for a term. When you click the notification, the new tweets slide out in the same fashion as the search page.
While this functionality was probably not too difficult to implement, since it was already built for the search feature, it is a welcome addition and something that just makes sense. In fact, it would make a lot of sense for Twitter to build out a notification system for @replies, re-tweets, and direct messages, like Facebook has for Wall posts and other actions. Getting updates without having to manually reload the page is one of the big advantages of Facebook's current functionality, so I would not be surprised to see Twitter to follow suit.
While this feature is still in limited testing, Twitter says it hopes to roll it out to everyone as soon as it can. I, along with many others, am not in the test group yet, so please share your thoughts on the feature in the comments if you are.
Hulu has debuted a long-requested feature--the ability to find out when new episodes of TV shows will be available to stream.
The video site, which is a joint venture of NBC, ABC, and Fox, calls the new feature Coming Soon. It went live Monday.
Hulu's new Coming Soon feature.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman)The schedule of when TV shows will be released online has been unclear up until this point, leaving people guessing when an episode will be posted. This new feature solves that problem.
The update includes a few additional features. First, people can choose to get an e-mail reminding them when an episode gets posted. This is definitely helpful for those of us who are forgetful and don't use Hulu's excellent Queue feature. Also, Hulu now lets you place the embed code for an unreleased episode on your blog or Web site. I embedded this week's upcoming episode of "The Office" below to show how this feature looks.
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Pandora, with new Facebook, Twitter, and Gift sharing features.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Pandora on Wednesday announced the arrival of some new sharing features for the service. In the past, you have been able to share Pandora stations, but you were forced to do it via e-mail instead of taking advantage of one of the modern social networks. Now, Pandora is enabling station and song sharing via much more efficient means: Facebook and Twitter.
These features work pretty much exactly how you would think they would. Clicking on the Facebook icon pops out a Facebook window, allowing you to share either the current song or station. The Twitter integration works in much the same way, enabling you to tweet out a link to the current song or station. When you click on the station link that someone has shared, it whisks you away to their Pandora station and lets you listen. However, the song links only go to a landing page that gives you a 30-second preview and an option to create a station based on that song. Oddly, this page does not give the user the "Buy from Amazon/iTunes" option that Pandora's main app features.
In addition, Pandora is bringing more attention to its station-gifting feature. This feature basically allows users to create an entirely new station, pair it with an eCard and send it off to someone. Pandora is essentially trying to create the modern version of the mixtape. This feature has been around for a little while, but it has gained little attention to this point. The more prominent placing in Pandora's music player may change that.
These new sharing features should boost usage of Pandora. Tapping into the previously untouched power of Facebook's social graph and Twitter can only be a good thing. Pandora is just coming off of reaching an agreement on new royalty rates for music this summer and it's working toward its goal of being profitable by the end of the year. They're also facing some stiff competition from companies like Slacker. Pandora still has a long road ahead, but opening up its service to sharing on Facebook and Twitter is definitely a step in the right direction.
I've written about social recommendation network Glue before, noting that it is a social network that is just along for the ride as a Firefox/IE extension that slides out when you need it. The basic idea is that when you visit a site that's supported by Glue (IMDB, Amazon, Wikipedia, Last.fm, and a lot more), the Glue extension will slide out and tell you what your friends thought about that particular piece of content and give you the option to review it yourself. It's a great concept where the information comes to you instead of you having to seek it out. Today, Glue is adding a more traditional profile-based system to the site, which provides more incentives for users to contribute regularly.
Glue investor Fred Wilson's new profile on the site, complete with Stickers and Guru.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Adding a "game dynamic" to your service is a proven technique that boosts user engagement. Glue is hoping to do just that with its new profile system on GetGlue.com. It is taking a page out of Foursquare's book and adding "Stickers" for user accomplishments and declaring "Guru" status for those who comment most frequently on a particular piece of content.
The similarities to Foursquare's Badges and Mayor features are pretty apparent here. Glue's Founder and CEO Alex Iskold commented, "We've been admiring what Foursquare did to encourage people to engage with their service." On the subject of the Guru feature, Iskold told us that, "Guru is something that we developed to encourage people to really engage around things they love. Unlike Mayor, being a Guru is a bunch more work, since you need to actively comment on things to stay the Guru."
Glue is also adding suggestions, presented in the form of a stream. As you give the thumbs up to pieces of content throughout the Web, these suggestions will evolve and become more targeted. Their algorithm also takes into consideration what your friends' favorites are as well as the overall favorites for the community. Hopefully your own ratings have some more weight than popular content, or else Metallica fans might be staring down streams filled with Miley Cyrus.
Even though I like the hands-off nature of Glue's browser extension, I think that their profile system is a strong addition to the service. The new game dynamic will certainly drive more user interaction as people compete for Guru status and collect Stickers for their profile. Glue also threw a couple of new statistics our way to give us an idea of their growth. Currently, the service is getting a new rating every three seconds and a total of 1.2 million new interactions between people and things every month.
Here's a nice video that the guys at Glue put together for this release to explain the service:
(Credit:
BART)
We are already seeing people offering special deals to the Foursquare "mayor" of their businesses. Today, BART (one of the San Francisco Bay Area's public transit systems) is announcing a partnership with Foursquare to reward users who check in on BART. Foursquare is introducing a special badge for regular riders of BART and offering $25 promotional tickets for the first three months of November to random users who have checked in on BART.
Programs like this are going to be what brings Foursquare into the mainstream. Foursquare already has a very loyal user base, but it still remains relatively small. By offering incentives to use the service, Foursquare will be better able to draw more users. Foursquare has been actively pursuing businesses and encouraging them to offer specials to their users.
Speaking about the announcement of this partnership, co-founder Dennis Crowley said, "We're excited about the potential for Foursquare to influence people's actions and decisions beyond things like entertainment, into broader areas, like taking public transit or getting involved in their communities." This deal with BART is a great step toward expanding Foursquare beyond a leaderboard for bar hopping.
This morning, Fred Wilson introduces us to one of Union Square Ventures' portfolio companies that is coming out of stealth and launching publicly. Tracked.com is a sort of re-imagining of a business information service that provides personalized information on businesses and the people associated with them.
The start-up is positioned to be a competitor to Google and Yahoo Finance, which are largely ticker-based, as well as user-driven information sites like CrunchBase, Wikipedia, and, to some extent, LinkedIn.
Conceived by Mike Yavonditte, formerly of Quigo, Tracked.com, of course, provides extensive information on ticker-based companies, including company financials, much like Google and Yahoo Finance do, but it's not just a stock service. Its strong point is that it also tracks privately held companies, gathering any available information on them. For all of these companies, Tracked shows a wealth of information and news as well as the people associated with the company, complete with fleshed out profiles on them as well.
Tracked helps you keep an eye on the companies and people that you find important in the business world. It has a completely customizable "My Tracker" section that allows you to pick what companies and people to watch. For public companies, it has more robust functionality than Google or Yahoo Finance. It even calls out a lot of interesting data like executive compensation. For example, you can view a list of the executives with the highest compensation in 2006. For private companies, Tracked might be the most extensive, publicly available database in existence (aside from Wikipedia) and it's sure to grow even more.
One thing that is notably different about Tracked as compared to Wikipedia or CrunchBase is that users cannot edit current entries or add new ones. This ensures that the data on Tracked is accurate since the team can check all of the data that comes in. The downside to this is that it cannot possibly include as much information as a user-driven site.
Overall, Tracked.com is a strong, customizable alternative that will pull some users away from Google and Yahoo Finance. It is a convenient and highly addictive way to browse through information on public and private businesses as well as people. The information is so extensive and interesting that you should plan to burn a couple of hours the first time that you check the site out.
You may notice that Tracked.com is operating a little slow right now with the surge of traffic from its launch. Hopefully, as they work out the kinks, performance will improve.
Here are some additional screenshots to give you a better idea of the site's functionality, but you should really just check it out yourself. ... Read more
Technorati used to be the pinnacle of blog search, an essential tool for every blogger, journalist, and news junkie. The service has since fallen from grace as replacements, such as Google Blog Search, have surfaced. Now, Technorati is completely revamping its site and service for what seems like the hundredth time. This time around, it is making major changes to its famous Top 100/Technorati Authority, as well as improving its search and blog directory. Technorati will also allow bloggers to publish their content directly on Technorati.com, creating a wealth of original content.
The home page of Technorati's re-vamped site.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)One of Technorati's core features has been authority. Technorati uses authority to rank blogs into the top 100 and to give feedback about how reliable a source is. In this re-launch, authority rankings will change more quickly to accommodate for the fast-paced nature of blogs. They have also added "topical authority," which ranks blogs in categories which they cover.
Technorati also stresses that it has made significant changes to its search algorithm. In the past, Technorati's search delivered the most recent results as opposed to the best results. Now, Technorati will try to fetch you the best results, based on several factors, including authority. Its improved blog directly also now allows for better sorting by category, showing the top blogs and the biggest movers for each one.
Technorati's new Top 100.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)Finally, Technorati will begin to offer original content from bloggers who want their content to be published on the site. This is definitely a win-win situation for bloggers and for Technorati. Technorati gets a lot of good, fresh content and bloggers can hope to gain more exposure. If you're interested in this program, you can sign up here.
This is, overall, a very strong update for Technorati as it works to return to prominence. Technorati will almost certainly see a short-term jump in usage from this major revamp, but whether users will stick around remains to be seen.
In a decidedly Facebook-style move, Twitter is asking for its users' help in translating the service into new languages. To start, Twitter is focusing on translating the site into French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
Twitter is starting with a small set of translators, but if you want to sign up to translate the service to the language of your expertise, you can enter your information here. They're looking for translators for just about every language from Finnish to Thai. As translations of the site are completed, Twitter also plans to offer up the translation files to the developer community to help translate their apps for Twitter's new markets.
Twitter translators get a special badge on their profile and are given levels (1-10) based on how much translation they have done. Twitter has also built leaderboards for each language being translated. You can see the one for the French translation here. This gives the translators a little more incentive above just knowing that they have contributed.
Twitter's new Translator badge.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)At the beginning of 2008, Facebook started a similar user translation effort, which has been a huge factor in the site's international growth. Recently, Facebook also introduced a translation tool that works with Facebook Connect and allows site owners to have their site translated by Facebook users. Twitter is hoping that expanding into new markets through these translations will blow up their user base, just like it did for Facebook.
