Webware

News roundup: StumbleUpon, Last.fm, Xbox 360 chat

StumbleUpon/eBay talks heat up. The Wall Street Journal is reporting (registration required) that a deal between eBay and StumbleUpon to acquire the social networking and content recommendation service is getting closer. No agreement has been made on price, but the rumored amount brings it somewhere near $75 million dollars. If acquired, StumbleUpon's content preference algorithms could be employed on eBay's auction listings to give eBay users a new way to get recommendations on things they might want to buy. ( CNET News.com Blog)

Last.fm launching video service. As reported by the Register in March, Last.fm … Read more

Growing green friends

Many green products and services sprout on Earth Day only to wither the rest of the year. Hoping to maintain the momentum year-round, many geeks are nurturing social-networking sites for the nature-loving set.

Online communities built to help you take baby steps to green your life include Riverwired--where you can keep a blog, upload videos, and mingle with other members--and Be Green Now, a project of Green Mountain Energy. And in addition to the many green car-sharing, rental, and limo services out there, the new GoLoco site might help you find carpooling pals.

Internet services that encourage users to … Read more

DIY social network with Me.com's SNAPP tool

Me.com has launched a new tool called SNAPP that lets people put together their own social networking hubs. Like Ning.com, which launched a similar service in March, SNAPP gives users ready-made tools such as a blog, live chat, forums, and shared photo albums to create a fairly full-featured site without knowing any HTML. SNAPP also integrates Me.com's social networking system, so existing Me.com users will be able to join your network without any special signup.

While some of the tools and features are aimed at the younger social networking crowd (like the am i hot? rating tool), … Read more

Firefox does Twitter: Twitbin

Twitbin is a small Firefox extension that puts a Twitter sidebar inside your browser. Once you've logged in with your Twitter credentials, it keeps tabs on your friends or public Tweets. You can also write new posts right from the sidebar.

To toggle the Twitbin sidebar on and off, there's a bird logo that shows up on your browser next to the home button. The sidebar has its own links, for switching back and forth between friends and public feeds, and a refresh button to update posts. If you're not interested in manually hitting the refresh button, … Read more

A fresh, faster Hotmail

Some 280 million Hotmail users are getting a brand-new in-box today. If you're already using Hotmail, a green button will invite you to try the new service when you log in, while the beta tag disappears for testers (pictures here).

Microsoft is also building bridges between its desktop and browser-based e-mail services. The Windows Live Mail beta download should be available later this month, succeeding Outlook Express and Windows Mail. Also later in May, expect to see the free Microsoft Office Outlook Connector beta, which will synchronize contacts, e-mails, and folders with the new Hotmail. The current Outlook Web … Read more

Yahoo Messenger is now Webware

Yahoo has launched a Web-based version of its instant messaging client, at webmessenger.yahoo.com (News.com story). It's a slick Flash-based app, and it's a comfortable messaging environment for people used to the downloadable app. The Web version doesn't give you access to all the bells and whistles of the app, such as access to the plug-ins and integrated voice chat, but it handles the basics well enough.

Like Google and AOL's Web-based instant messaging services, the big advantage is that Web-based chat apps don't require a download, so you can chat on locked-down … Read more

News Roundup: CBS, MySpace, Microsoft, AOL

Brightcove and CBS News parner up. CBS' News division has teamed up with Brightcove to play popular news content like CBS Evening News on Brightcove.com. This is one of the many sites and services CBS is partnering with as part of their " Interactive Audience Network," which is marketing speak for taking their shows off the television and putting them online. They've also been working with YouTube and AOL to expand online offerings of CBS programming. ( CNET News.com)

MySpace sexual preference bug causes stir. A small bug on MySpace that removed the option for users to … Read more

Quickeo builds nice multimedia e-mails, but snags hold it back

It's been a while since we covered a file transfer product like Izimi, Tubes, YouSendIt, or Zapr. But there are still new solutions popping up to solve the problem of sending big files. The latest--that we know of--is Quickeo.

This product's special sauce is that it will bundle up several multimedia files into an attractive e-mail "album". When a recipient clicks on link in the e-mail, it will fire up a Web page that he or she can use to play your files directly.

To create a Quickeo album and send these e-mails, you need to … Read more

Fleck: bouncing sticky notes on any Web site

Fleck is a free Web annotation tool for marking up blogs, Web sites, and social networking profiles with little sticky notes. The service launched late last year as a Firefox-only tool and has since added compatibility with Internet Explorer. Fleck, like other annotation tools, can be a dead-simple way to collaborate and leave visual feedback for others without the hassle of software or the complexity of more advanced business collaboration tools.

Managing annotations with Fleck is very simple. Just plug a URL from any Web site into Fleck.com and you're ready to go. You can create and move … Read more