Social Sites Reaching Epidemic Proportions

Holy smokes! It was only 39 days ago that I posted about the lack of MySpace alternatives but the market has since exploded! (You can thank me later.) In the past week we’ve been introduced to:

• Koolanoo.com – A social networking site “For the Jewish people, By the Jewish people.”
• HoverSpot – HoverSpot hopes to differentiate themselves by rewarding users for contet. Uploading photos, filling out your profile, commenting, and blogging will earn you points, which in turn will become entries into contests and sweepstakes. Currently the giveaway is limited to a Nano every other month.
• Tired & Tested – A sports-focused social networking site, Tired & Tested bills itself as “MySpace with shorts on.” Those crazy Brits.

Other new social sites abound, including:

• Yardbarker - Digg meets Sports Illustrated meets MySpace. Sports fans submit their favorite sports stories, and other users rank them a la Digg. My husband thinks this is neato-cool, and I suspect my teenage son will as well.
• Hotspottin.com – Tell the world about your favorite hotspots.

In addition, the Australian site Faces.com relaunched this week, and according to the article by Mashable, they’ve gone all out with the features.

I still haven’t met a recipe site that I’m in love with yet, so if Frankenstein’s Lab could give the MySpace business a rest and get busy on cooking sites, I’d really appreciate it. (Oh, and don’t forget to make it sync with my Pocket PC.)

Tags: MySpace clone, MySpace alternative, Yardbarker, HotSpottin, Faces, sports, social networking, Tired & Tested, HoverSpot, Koolanoo

LibraryThing, aNobii Check Out Online Bookshelf Space

It looks like LibraryThing might finally have a real competitor in aNobii. Like LibraryThing, aNobii offers a virtual bookshelf for your tomes, and it covers the social aspect by recommending other readers with similar tastes. aNobii boasts a fairly powerful import feature that can add a list of books from any web page by either processing the URL, as does LibraryThing. However, aNobii can also parse HTML code that you paste in. (I used this method to copy my list from LibraryThing.) Adding a single book is simple at both sites, although I find that LibraryThing is much faster. (This might be because aNobii has a more graphical design.)

aNobii isn’t all brains and no beauty, though. The site has a beautiful, clean interface that’s obviously well-thought out and designed with the end user in mind. LibraryThing’s design tends to be on the clunky side, and while not counterintuitive, it’s not going to win any awards for usability.

Both sites offer blog widgets, rating systems, and tagging, and a host of social features, such as saving other readers as favorites. aNobii adds a nice touch, though, with the ability to designate the status of a book ( currently reading, not started, finished, unfinished) – a feature that is sorely needed at LibraryThing. In addition, aNobii lets users specify if a book is available for sale or swap. Finally, aNobii offers a wish list feature that lets users browsing the bookshelves keep track of future reads.

LibraryThing offers a mobile edition (very handy, that, when standing in a book store wondering if you have that book already) and an export feature that aNobii doesn’t seem to have. LibraryThing also has the advantage of time, having far more users – and shelved books – than aNobii. (LibraryThing just hit 5 million books on their “shelves”; in comparison, aNobii only has 8460 as of this writing.This is significant because the social aspects of both sites rely on matching readers with like tastes and books in common.)

Even without the mobile app and the export feature, aNobii still gives LibraryThing some stiff competition, and they seem to be pretty evenly matched. It will be interesting to see how this plot develops.

Technorati Tags: books, library, LibraryThing, aNobii, Amazon, social networking

Frankenstein Labs Working Overtime on MySpace Clones

My goodness but the MySpace clone category is starting to get very full. Just this last week, we’ve seen the release of:

• Angler’s Lounge – If you want to get your great outdoors fix from your armchair, this is a great site to visit. Mingle online with other fisherman and brag about the one that got away.

• KrishnaFriends – The Hare Krishnas finally get their own MySpace.

• BakeSpace - Cooks, unite! While your husband is online visiting Angler’s Lounge, why don’t you whip out the laptop for some hardcore recipe trading over at BakeSpace?

• Motortopia – A MySpace clone for enthusiasts of cars, bikes, boats and planes. Super-slick design!

• OakTreeIdea – A MySpace for Christians.

• MyChurch – Online communities for churches. I stand corrected – Joe from MyChurch was nice enough to point out that they have more in common with Facebook than with MySpace. Thanks Joe!

• In addition, the site touted as “the MySpace for parents”, Minti, is out of beta this week.

I’m waiting for DogHerder.com, the MySpace for households with more dogs than people. Then I’ll know I’ve truly arrived!

Technorati Tags: MySpace, MySpace clone, MySpace alternative, Christian, motorist, cooks, Krishna, churches, Angler’s Lounge, KrishnaFriends, BakeSpace, Motortopia, OakTreeIdea, MyChurch, Minti

powered by performancing firefox

PayJr Still Hasn’t Finished Their Chores

I found a site last week that promised to change domesticity as I know it – or at least eliminate some of the chaos associated with chores. It’s called PayJr and it bills itself as the “next generation of chores and allowances.” The idea is to allow parents to assign chores and pay allowances online.

There’s not a beta tag in sight, but it’s hard for me to believe that the developers intend for this to be live yet. For one, the signup didn’t work in either Firefox or IE last week when I initially tried to join. This week the signup works, but your password has to exactly 8 characters long. (The help text says at least 8 characters. I finally figured it out by playing with it.) When I finally got my first look at the actual application, I was dismayed to see that the developers don’t offer any way for parents to enter their own chores, although they do offer about 30 canned chores. For me, this was a deal killer. After all the hype of the beautifully designed interface, and the very compelling copy, I was practically salivating at the thought of getting my hands on this. (Track chores and allowances online! Printable chore calendar! Optional prepaid teen card!)

I did manage to get both my children entered without any trouble, but not being able to enter our own family chores essentially rendered the application useless for me. For example, in our house we have a veritable herd of dogs. Although “walk the dog” is on the list, it would be helpful if I could designate which of the four dogs needs walking. Other chores associated with the dogs are feed the dog(s), clean out the water bowl, fill the water bowl, play ball with puppies, change bedding in kennel, wash the dog(s) – well, you see where I’m going with this, right?

It sounds as if PayJr has some big plans for the site, and if the early functionality is anything to judge by, I do think this will be a very useful site for parents. Until then, we’ll stick to the pen-and-paper method.

Technorati Tags: PayJr, chore, chore list, allowance

powered by performancing firefox

Etiquette 2.0 & a MySpace for Cooks

Do you know what I hate? I hate it when I get MySpace requests without any introduction, especially since my profile explicitly states that requests without an introduction will be denied. This complete disregard for my simple request tells me that this person either has the attention span of a gnat, or is a friend ‘ho, neither of which I’m likely to want to be associated with anyway. In the real world, a friend request without an introduction would be analogous to walking up to a complete stranger and shaking their hand without any introduction. Hopefully most of us were raised better than that, although I’m starting to wonder about most MySpacers formative years.

Bad manners seems to be making a comeback on the ‘net. Consider this screen capture from Skinnyr, a site that lets you “track your weight with a graph thingy!” You’d think that with such limited functionality, they’d be a little nicer to their users. I might add that part of the signup process is giving them your weight and height. If you’re any kind of overweight, seeing your disproportional weight and height reflected back at you from your screen is disheartening enough without being insulted by the site you wanted to join to help you in your weight loss efforts.

In other news, there’s a new crop of MySpace competitors/clones that have been launched since my last post on said sites. One of the new clones that I’m really liking the idea of is BakeSpace.com. It’s a MySpace for cooks. How cool is that? It’s a pretty site (they get points for that from me) and there are some neat features like being able to forward recipes, but filling out your profile will take about the same amount of time that writing the sequel to War and Peace would. Pack a lunch. In addition, they’re hampered by a small user base – and as a result – a very limited recipe offering. If they can increase membership, I think this has the potential to be a great site. Still, they have their work cut out for them with “competitors” such as AllRecipes.com and Meals.com.

Technorati Tags: MySpace, BakeSpace, cooking, manners, etiquette, recipes

powered by performancing firefox

Mobile Entertainment

Tonight’s post will be short. I am exhausted tonight for some reason and can hardly keep my eyes open.
————————————

I feel like I finally got something accomplished today! I finished my portfolio site, and at long last, started my workout regimen. The workout passed very quickly since I was listening to an audio book from Audible.com on my MDA. I love Audible! I’ve been a member for a few years and the service just keeps getting better and better. For $22.95 a month, I get to download two books, plus the daily (M-F) edition of the New York Times. (The Wall Street Journal is also available, if that’s more to your taste.) Moreover, each month members receive six featured audible books/interviews/short stories, etc. for free. Finally, if that weren’t enough, members also receive a free subscription to the digital edition of AudioFile, “The Magazine for People Who Love Audiobooks.” Another one of my favorite audiobook sites is LearnOutLoud. They specialize in educational audiobooks (and videos.)

When I’m not listening to a book on my MDA, I’m reading a book on my MDA. My favorite site to pick up great ebooks is Ereader.com, but Fictionwise is a close second. I’ve had a lot of people exclaim that the could never read a book on a screen that small, but you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get used to. One of the biggest benefits of reading digital books, aside from portability, is being able to read in the dark. Since my husband has a hard time falling asleep with the light on, ebooks make him happy, too. Other benefits include that it looks like you’re working when you’re actually reading, and of course, it eliminates the embarrassment of toting a book to the bathroom with you. (Pun intended.)

Another of my favorite “digital entertainment” sites is Zinio. Zinio provides digital editions of some of the most popular magazines for download. You can purchase individual issues or annual subscriptions, just like with print editions. Zinio provides a free, Adobe Acrobat-like, reading application that is easy to use and has neat features like searching, bookmarking and annotating. Generally the cost of the magazine/subscription is the same as it is in print. Now if they could just develop a way to get the mags on to my MDA, life would be good.

Sorry this post is so short (some of you may actually be happy about that) but I’ve given you some of the most digitally entertaining sites on the Internet, so shouldn’t you be moving along now? Shoo. Go read – or listen to – a book.

Tags: literature, audible books, Audible.com, Learn Out Loud, ebooks, Ereader, FictionWise, digital magazines, Zinio

powered by performancing firefox

Get the Kids Off to School and Get Some Rest!

You have no idea how much I detest Internet Exploder 6. I’ve spent several hours today troubleshooting styles that work fine in FireFox/Flock/Mozilla, but blow up in IE. It’s hard for me to believe that this is the same browser I used to prefer working with. My how far it’s fallen!

The good news is that the major kinks have been worked out and now it’s just design tweaking. This means that I’ll be done soon and I’ll be able to get back to surfing the net with impunity. I’ve been relying on my rss reader (Flock, natch) to keep me current with new sites, so that’s where you’re getting your news tonight.

It’s been a slow news day for web apps, but just in time for back-to-school, there’s a new site called Easy School Search. This could actually be pretty handy, especially if one is new in town. It allows users to locate schools in an area, or by zip code. Search results include all public and private secondary schools in the area; adding pre-schools to the results would make this a very valuable app. Basic information is provided about each institution, and in my case, a link to the Texas Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education was provided. A link to the district and/or school site would be a great addition.

(Today’s photo is of the Houston Uptown area, and is sposored by the letter “B”.)

Tags: Easy School Search

powered by performancing firefox

Still Getting My Ducks in a Row

First, have I mentioned how much I love Flock? I blogged about it a couple of days ago, but did I mention the cool photos window within the browser that lets one drag photos from their Flickr collection right into a blog post, comments field, or Gmail email? That last one is worth the price of admission – free – for me as the good technology gurus at Gmail haven’t gotten around to providing that functionality. (Hey, and while you Google chipheads are at it, how about adding some task tracking functionality to Google Calendar?)

Today was the all-you-can-eat technology buffet for me, in between trying to find good diet and recipe software for my MDA, and getting my portfolio site on the web. (Still looking for THE job. I know it’s out there. It took me 26 years to find the perfect husband. I guess the job can’t be far away now.)

Speaking of diet software, I did start my “diet” today. As of this writing, I have had nearly 72 ozs. of water today, and am amazed at how clear-headed simply being hydrated makes you. However, I didn’t get to exercise today. I would like to log all of this, but I still haven’t found the right combination of software and/or Internet sites. (By the way, Pocket Cook didn’t work at all on Windows Mobile 5, and I’m having a devil of a time getting Big Oven to synchronize with my MDA.

Luckily, and just in time for my lifestyle change, a new exercise & diet site was launched called Traineo. The interface and design are fantastic and full of Ajaxy goodness. In fact, this might be one of the best designed sites I’ve come across. Although their feature set isn’t all that complex, the site provides a simple graphing function to track weight loss and caloric intake. What excites me about this site, as simple as it is, is that users can invite up to four people to be “motivators.” Motivators can be anyone you choose or you can browse Traineo members that have signed up to be motivators.Although other weight-loss sites like PeerTrainer focus on accountability, to my knowledge no one has combined it with weight-loss tracking features. If Traineo adds just a few more features, such as a food database, this site will be a contender. (My profile can be viewed here.)

Tags: Flock, browser, Traineo, Peer Trainer

powered by performancing firefox

Underwater Internet Surfing

I’m late tonight – even by my standards. I’m working on a last-minute freelance job, so I’m burning the midnight oil. I have a logo to design, copy to write, and a brochure to lay out, so this will be a brief, but tasty, offering.

—————————————————

Today got off to a good start. By 7:30 it was very hot and very humid here in beautiful Houston. The heat is bad, but I think the humidity just might kill me. Walking outside is like trying to to breathe through a wet washcloth. It is said that the only reason we keep track of the humidity here in Houston is so that we don’t drown. I believe it. Still, it was beautiful, even if it was so oppressingly hot and overbearingly humid that I could only enjoy it from my window.

Luckily, I have the Internet. TechCrunch introduced me to the totally fabulous Sugar Network this morning, a collection of sites that dish up some of the best gossip, style, advice, and socializing . It’s like attending a tea party with the very hippest and wittiest women around. The interface is clean and simple, and the design is simply confectionary.

I’ve already copied a fantastic recipe for lettuce chicken wraps (no carbs) from the Dear Sugar (advice) site – and even their ads are great. Thanks to their superlative taste in advertisers, I’ve discovered the most fabulous stationery site ever! (Now I just need to find a full-time job so that I can afford it. ) I’m excited about that recipe – it looks yummy, and since I haven’t had time today to visit any recipe sites – or even drink water – in preparation for my dieting, it was well-timed. It could well be that I’ll be living off lettuce chicken wraps for the next week. That’s okay, though – I’ll be starving in style!

Tags: Sugar Network, gossip, style, advice, social network, women

powered by performancing firefox

A Salute to Russian Race Horses and Recipes

Well, I’ve made a successful start in planning my lifestyle change. I managed to drink two 8 oz. glasses of water today, and am working on my third. The next step in my plan is to get together some healthy recipes so that I can make a shopping list. In true Dani style, I’m looking to the web for the recipes. (I only wish that our local grocery stores were as high-tech as I am. Wouldn’t you love to have a grocery cart that would follow you around? I usually take my son with me to push the cart. He has the advantage over the robotic grocery cart in that he enthusiastically races the cart into position whenever I get the urge to go out for a pass with a box of cereal.)

Since I would like ideally to be able to synchronize my recipes with my handheld, I started my search for recipe sites at Handango, hoping to find a recipe application that interfaces with a cool website. I immediately hit pay dirt by doing a search for “recipe.” There are two contenders, Pocket Cook and Big Oven. Both offer recipe synchronization between the Pocket PC and the website, and seem robust enough, but I’m really put off by the interface. (I’m a design snob. I freely admit it.) If I had to choose on of them based on the cursory examination I made, I’d choose Pocket Cook. In addition to syncing recipes from the website to the handheld, they both have shopping lists and menus, but Pocket Cook seems to be the only one that supports Windows Mobile 5.0.

Of course, I always have my long-time favorite sites like All Recipes and Meals.com. I don’t know how 2.0 either one would be considered – after all, neither of them is in beta. But heck, I know how to use the cut and paste functions, and they do have a huge selection of great recipes. I also found this huge list of recipe sites that I’ll check out later.

For now, though, I’m off to the races thanks to my third glass of water.

Tags: recipe software, Pocket Cook, Big Oven, diet