Seekaroo

Mixx Adds New Features

January 1, 2008

Mixx, an up and coming, social news site which is quickly becoming one of my favorites recently announced several new features of note. These new developments may not be earth shaking in terms of breaking new ground but they do certainly add to the end-users overall experience.

Here is a list of the new features as reported by the official Mixx Blog:

• Public Groups - Now when you create a group, you can opt to have it accessible to the entire Mixx community.
• Email Digests - A once-a-day update of all activity on Mixx—who Friended you, any comments on your submissions, group activity, and whatever else has been clogging up your in-box.
• Address Book Importer - As the name implies, you can now import your address from any of the four largest email providers.
• On-deck - Allows you to see the stories that are close to crossing into the Popular category.
• More Robust Duplicate Checking - A reworking of the duplicate checker in an effort to catch more duplicates before they are submitted.

Mixx is relatively new but the creators seem to be paying attention to what the end-user wants to see in a social news site. It still has a long way to go but I really like the direction they are headed.

David Culpepper | Filed Under Social Media | 1 Comment »

Mozilla Adds Live Firefox Chat Support

December 31, 2007

Are you constantly preaching about the virtues of Firefox but have grown tired of providing support to your family and friends? If so, you’ll be very happy to hear this news. Mozilla, the company responsible for the Firefox web browser, recently announced that a live chat feature has been added to their support page.

Today we are officially opening our Live Chat support to users of Firefox. Users who can’t find their answer in the knowledge base or the forum can now get real time help troubleshooting their issues with more skilled Firefox users.

It should be noted that the support staff is currently volunteer-only and support is not available 24 hours a day, but this is a big step in the right direction.

So, next time you install Firefox for someone, be sure you add a bookmark for the new live chat support.

David Culpepper | Filed Under Web Browsers | Comments Off

Zivity Founder Bares All

December 31, 2007

Without a doubt, one of the most controversial startups of 2007 was Zivity. The site basically acts as a social networking venue for aspiring adult models by allowing the models to upload photos and build a following. It’s also one of the first adult sites to receive financial backing from Silicon Valley.

The founders describe the service as:

… a reality media platform for sexy models and beautiful photography where members get to distribute royalties to the models and photos they find appealing via Zivity’s patent-pending dollar-backed voting system. With a $10 subscription, members receive five votes every month to cast for their favorite Zivity stars.

One of the models is co-founder Cyan Banister. Banister already has a set of pictures uploaded but they are apparently strictly PG-13. Next week, she reportedly plans to add another set that includes topless photos, and says that she may go completely nude in future updates.

In 2000, at just 22-years-old, Banister won the “Sexiest Geek Alive” award so she isn’t exactly new to getting attention for her looks but has never gone nude.

You can expect to hear more on Zivity over the next few weeks. They will be expanding the number of beta users and will soon begin to open the site up to some of the 20,000 people who have already signed up to get a peek.

Source: TechCrunch

David Culpepper | Filed Under Social Media | Comments Off

Reconnect With Old Friends Through Facebook

December 26, 2007

Have you been thinking about your first girlfriend recently? Wondering what on earth happened to your best friend in kindergarten? Now you can find them and reconnect, with Facebook. If you aren’t already using this tool, you should be, it is an excellent way to catch up with people you thought you’d never see again!

Before you start searching for those long lost crushes, you will want to set up a fairly comprehensive profile so they will know who they are contacting. Include as much information as you feel comfortable with and add at least one photo so they can identify you, sometimes a photo is the only way you can tell who is who from a long list of people with the same name who live in the same area.

Make sure you put down where you are from. If you have a relatively common name, it will be difficult for others to find you and having your location and a photo available means that it is far easier to contact you. This is important because you may have forgotten about someone who ends up doing a search for you. You want them to be able to find you.

Once your profile is up and running, it is time to start searching. If you are like me and can’t remember last names, try digging out those dusty old year books and start looking people up. You can also try unusual names. For example, if you knew someone named “Booger” that would probably turn up immediately! Even without a last name available.

You can also search for groups, so if you are trying to find people from your high school, you can search for the name of your high school and it will turn up any groups that have that name in the title. Look for the year or years that you were there and you can see the people who joined this group. This works for summer camps, missions trips, etc. as well.

When you click on “Add to Friends” beside someone’s picture, make sure you are ready to let them know who you are. There is a space for adding a personal message and I highly recommend you use it, especially if there is a chance that the person you are contacting will not remember you. You might even want to include where you met and why you are contacting the person.

Facebook is constantly growing but not everyone has joined yet. That means you may not find that hot cheerleader from high school but keep checking for the people you really want to connect with again because it’s possible that they will be there in the future.

This is the ideal resource for anyone wanting to reconnect with their past. You will be amazed at how people have changed in the few years since you last saw them!

David Culpepper | Filed Under Social Media | Comments Off

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a very happy and safe holiday season.

David Culpepper | Filed Under General News | Comments Off

WordPress.com Adds New RSS Functionality

December 25, 2007

WordPress.com, one of the most popular free blog platforms, recently announced upgrades to their RSS functionality. The new features include a number of widgets that provide functionality that previously could only be implemented by using a third party service like Feedburner.

The new widgets can be found on your “Reading Options” page and allow you to include comment counts, categories, tags, and gives your readers the ability to submit your posts to Del.icio.us, Digg, and StumbleUpon.

This is how it looks in your RSS feed:

The new widgets can be found on your “Reading Options” page.

This will be a welcomed addition for those of you out there who don’t want Google to know exactly how many subscribers you have.

David Culpepper | Filed Under Blogging | Comments Off