Ajax Girl

Google has released two new features for its RSS reading product, Recommendations and Drag-and-Drop.

The Discovery recommendation feature suggests new sites a user may wish to read based on current subscriptions and (interestingly) browsing history. Google has previously offered feed bundles based on subjects, but this is the first time it has offered customized recommendations in this way.

The drag-and-drop functionality allows users to re-order or move subscribed feeds within a folder or to another folder. This style of functionality isn’t unique, and as Google itself points out, RSS readers such as Bloglines and NewsGator already provide drag-and-drop functionality.

Google thanks a number of interns and ex-interns for the new features, a nice thing to do.

As a Google Reader user I know I’m certainly going to use the drag-and-drop functionality, and I’m even looking at some of the suggested feeds as well, but I’ve got to ask: how is it that we can get drag-and-drop in Reader and not Gmail? Surely Gmail could do with this functionality. Maybe the Gmail team needs some interns as well

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192784975/

With Facebook making changes to its Beacon program, users will see a new set of options every time they interact with a “Beacon Affiliate”. This is what you’ll see:

Notification

Facebook users will see a notification in the lower right corner of the screen after transacting with a Beacon Affiliate. Options include “No Thanks” that will immediately stop the transaction from being published. Alternatively closing or ignoring the warning won’t immediately publish the story, but it will be put in a queue

Second Warning

Presuming you’ve ignored or closed the first notification, Facebook warns users again the next time they visit their home page. A new box reminds you that an activity has been sent to Facebook. Like the first notification you can choose to not publish the activity by hitting remove, or you can choose to publish it by hitting ok.

Per the original statement from Facebook at this stage, presuming you’ve ignored the warnings and not selected to publish the activity or told Facebook no, it won’t be published. Here’s the kicker though: they’ll keep annoying you until you finally make a decision:

If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click “OK” to publish or click “remove” to not publish.

But there is hope should you not wish to have your Facebook experience consumed by messages asking you to publish or not publish an activity, you can opt out permanently

Opt Out
Found via the “External Websites” section of the Facebook Privacy page, this allows users to permanently opt in or out of Beacon notifications, or if you’re not sure be notified. The downside is that there is no global option to opt out of every Beacon affiliated program; it has to be set per program. Better this than nothing I suppose.

thanks to Rachel for the tip

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192765014/

Reports surfaced yesterday, and now we have the official word from Facebook. Users will now have to opt-in to share purchases via Beacon:

Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly.

Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.

If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click “OK” to publish or click “remove” to not publish.

Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.

Clicking the “Help” link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process.

It seems like a win for users, although I’m sure the ramifications of this announcement will be dissected and considered in the hours and days to come. First impressions though: the immediate defaulting to privacy is sure to appease many critics, but the details may still raise some concerns, for example Facebook is still capturing this data, the only difference now is that it wont automatically share it. Will this be enough? advertisers will still be able to tap into Beacon for purchasing preferences and other details based on activity on Facebook so the privacy option is really only skin deep.

(via AllFacebook)

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192714286/

I first met Sarah Meyers when she crashed our 2006 party at August Capital. She was booted, but got enough video footage to make this video. This year she was back at the party, but as an invitee - see one of her videos here.

Meyers now lives in New York, and has been working on a new live daily tech show. It hasn’t officially launched, but her first shows started streaming earlier this week at PopSnap.net.

The show shows live daily. A time will eventually be nailed down, she says, but for now you have to check the calendar (powered by 30Boxes) to see exactly when it goes on the air. When the show is not being shown live, the last show is played on a loop. Eventually, clicking on the video will start it from the beginning.

Users can comment on the show via an embedded meebo chat widget. The show itself is powered by Mogulus, a live streaming video startup we covered back in June.

The show is clearly still working through some kinks, so be kind. But Sarah’s charisma comes out strongly in these first few episodes, and it’s clear that she will have a large following of loyal viewers.

Check out the show now and give your feedback through the chat widget. The site will officially launch in December, and archives will become available then. We are going to be one of the charter sponsors of the show.

Meebo

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Mogulus

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Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192713074/

Dow Jones’ MarketWatch may not report stock information about particular companies as well as its competitors, such as Google Finance, newly redesigned AOL Money & Finance, or even Yahoo Finance, but it has taken the initiative to develop a new portfolio tool that tops them all.

Whereas the others’ portfolio tools are still stuck with clunky interfaces that provide limited information, MarketWatch has developed an Ajax-based tool that enables you to thoroughly compare the performances of selected stocks side-by-side. During market hours, the tool will even update the stocks’ performances - and the investments you have made in them - automatically so you don’t need to refresh the page.

I checked out the portfolio tools of MarketWatch’s competitors (consisting primarily of free services such as those mentioned above) and was surprised to see how primitive they are, especially compared to some of their other financial features. Google Finance, for example, has a great Flash-based, interactive timeline for particular stocks but only a very stripped-down view of stock information when viewed in a portfolio.

MarketWatch’s new tool makes it easy to add stocks to a portfolio, organize them with tags, and view many performance metrics. In one well-laid-out chart, you can track your stocks’ most recent prices, price changes as percentages, price changes within ranges, trade volumes, price charts, and news. You can also see outstanding shares, 52-week highs and lows, market caps, P/E ratios, EPSs, yields, and dividends.

The value of this upgrade is best understood in relation to the other tools out there, so I’ve provided screenshots of the others below.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192684150/

It’s been less than two weeks since Google penalized PayPerPost bloggers in the most devastating way possible - by resetting all of their PageRanks to zero and effectively removing them from the Internet.

PayPerpost, now called IZEA, is in the process of launching RealRank, an alternative way to rank blogs. But their advertisers are still looking for blogs with an actual PageRank to write about them (this helps with the SEO effort). The result? Freaked out PPP shills who are going to have to find a real job.

Bloggers are expressing their angst on forum thread. Among the more pathetic messages:

Oh. My. God. Oh my god! I can’t believe this is happening. I NEED to earn money with my blogs, I’m going to have to take every single opp I qualify for every day in order to keep up with expenses.

and this, from someone lamenting a negative comment on their blog (the second paragraph is a winner):

I’m trying to develop a thicker skin, I really am. But this is my livelihood, you know? This is important to me. When I started with PPP, I never thought I would still be doing it seven months later, or that I would care about it so much.

And since when is independence and paid blogging mutually exclusive? There is choice involved.

So much for the claims by PayPerPost that their bloggers only write about products they actually believe in. PayPerPost isn’t dead, but a big chunk of their advertisers are clearly bailing now that the SEO value of paid posts is gone. That’s bad news for the shill blogs that rely on PPP to pay the bills, but good for the blogosphere in general.

PayPerPost

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Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192649479/

Ad networks are still catching money like rain. AdBrite raised $23 million from existing investors Sequoia Capital and Hedge fund Artis Management, reports Dan Primack. This is on top of $12 million, the company has already raised. In October, comScore ranked AdBrite as the 26th largest ad network after MySpace. Its ads reached 71 million people that month, representing a 39 percent reach of U.S. Internet traffic.

AdBrite, which was founded by Philip “Pud” Kaplan of FuckedCompany.com fame, targets ads based on demographics. It also offers an embeddable video player that incorporates ads as clickable watermarks.

AdBrite

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Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192595813/

College Tonight, one of a group of startups that is trying to win over Facebook’s core college membership, has raised a $1.6 million round of financing. Oh, and they went “public.”

This isn’t really going public, though. They’ve merged with a barely alive public entity called Simex Technologies (SMXT), which is trading at $0.49 per share on the Nasdaq pink sheets. Simex, which had been delinquent in its annual and quarterly reports for some time, is now current and has changed its name to College Tonight, Inc.

This is a common way for startups to get liquidity fast, and it rarely ends well. When Nasdaq companies get delisted into pink sheet purgatory, they will occasionally get picked up.

A subsidiary of Simex called Remote Business, Inc. used to be “engaged in the design, installation, servicing and monitoring of digital surveillance security systems for business and industry” — hardly anything related to social networking.

CollegeTonight

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Facebook

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Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192544481/

This is the third in a series of posts showing how we use Campfire as our virtual office. All screenshots shown are from real usage and were taken during one week in September.

This time we’ll take a look at how Campfire is an integral part of our sysadmin and development efforts.

Discover and fix a code failure
Whenever someone checks in a piece of code, CIA (Continous Integration Agent) automatically runs our test suites and reports on any failed tests.

Analyze a server problem
David and Mark discuss a server issue.

Subversion shows changes to the code
Subversion tracks changes Ryan recently uploaded. Jason offers kudos on the copy edit made.

Tell everyone about a server change
Sam deploys changes to Backpack and details what was changed.
Prep the rollout of a new feature
The team discusses server performance and the best way to roll out a new feature.

Share server analytics
Mark and David discuss median response times.

Find out when a domain will update
Jason posts a domain status screen and asks Mark when it will update.

Related:
Behind the scenes at 37signals: Design
Behind the scenes at 37signals: Coding

Coming soon: How we use Campfire for copywriting, customer support, and more.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/721-behind-the-scenes-at-37signals-sysadmin-and-development

We have had a couple of interesting announcements in the worlds of Widgadgets. First, Yahoo! launched a new version of the Widget platform: Yahoo! Widgets 4.5, and second, Google Gadgets have gone across another platform, with new support for the Mac and Dashboard.

Yahoo! Widgets 4.5

What’s New for Widget developers:

Yahoo! Widgets 4.5 now makes it easier for Widget authors to drive deeper engagement with users.

• Build even more engaging desktop Widgets, using new rich-media capabilities, including video.
• Utilize existing web development (HTML and Flash) skills to build compelling desktop Widgets.
• Offer users the ability to download their desktop Widgets from any webpage within 1-2 clicks via the new In-page installer badges.
• Enable easier discovery by more users, via the new Yahoo! Widget Gallery with improved SEO.

Read more on our blog!

Google Gadgets for the Mac

Google Gadgets for the Mac uses WebKit’s JavaScript engine inside Dashboard, so the majority of gadgets just work if they’re written properly. The rest can be fixed by following a few guidelines:

• Use JavaScript, not JScript

• WebKit is case-sensitive, JScript is not, which can lead to problems if you assume can you do things like interchange SetTimeOut() and setTimeout().
• Avoid JScript-only features like collections and ActiveX.

• Avoid IE-specific DOM extensions, just as if you were writing a multi-browser web application.

Avoid Windows-specific APIs

• You shouldn’t assume ActiveX or certain DLLs are available. Neither WebKit nor Mac OS X supports ActiveX, so these gadgets must be rewritten.
• Avoid Windows-only APIs such as Google Talk. These APIs are not (yet) available on Mac OS X.

Understand how Dashboard is different

• The Dashboard environment is very different from a web page or the Desktop sidebar on Windows in that it comes and goes as the user activates it. Don’t rely on your gadget always being visible. Your gadget won’t run or update when Dashboard isn’t in the foreground.
• Don’t rely on access to the file system. The security model for Dashboard doesn’t allow arbitrary file access to the hard disk, although your gadget does have access to files in its own archive. Things like file pickers won’t work. Note that while restricted file system access is a departure from how gadgets work on Windows, it’s consistent with Dashboard’s security model and the behavior of other widgets developed for Mac OS X.

For more details, see Writing a Cross-Platform Gadget, part of the Desktop Gadget API documentation.

If you’re interested in developing your own gadget, visit the Gadgets API homepage. If you’re already a gadget developer, download the beta today to test your gadget and ensure that it works correctly.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/192496647/widgets-and-gadgets