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Source:Mashable!

Would you use a time-tracking application to help you determine and manage your “real” social network? timeXchange hopes so, with some of its latest updates. Instead of becoming stagnant as a tool that merely tracks time for employees, contractors or the self-employed, timeXchange is going the social route, hoping to use its service as a way to provide more immediate value as a relationship-management tool that focuses on working relationships.

If you invite a collaborator to your project on timeXchange, you’ll now also have that person as a contact in relation to that overlapping project, making this service a multifaceted management tool for both projects and relationships. As we use Web-based services to handle more and more of our business and personal relationships’ transactions, we find that there are many groups that overlap with each other within our own social graph. And managing the overlap can be problematic–it’s an ongoing issue that has spurred the development of privacy settings for various types of networks, and helped niche networks remain so for all intents and purposes.

So when we look at the people we actually keep in contact with in person, via phone conversations or Web-based applications, we can begin to factor this into our “actual” social networks. Skydeck made this abundantly clear with the release of its phone call tracking service, which organizes your contacts based on your real level of interaction with each individual.

As Skydeck moves to integrate further with some of the other existing social networks out there through things like its developer tools and plug-in options, timeXchange will hopefully move in this direction as well, enabling users to continue their networking capabilities outside of timeXchange and carrying them over into other networks like Facebook. Perhaps timeXchange will even recommend who they should befriend on third party sites and integrate some of the scheduling and time-tracking capabilities. There’s a new iPhone app that timeXchange launched earlier this week, so additional integration on this end would be helpful as well (get it here).

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:timeXchange Updates to Attract New UsersWeb Ascent Events: Introducing our PresentersWeb Ascent Event Wrap Up. Thanks to All Who Made it Out!Orbitz Launches Incentives for Traveler Update ServiceFirefox 2.0.0.8 Released; Enables Leopard CompatibilityWordPress 2.5 Is Finally OutiPhone Update Renders Unlocked Devices Useless

Source:Mashable!

In response to Google’s popular app for the iPhone, Yahoo announced today that it has launched its own online iPhone search that not only lets you search the Web, but includes Search Assist and SearchMonkey to add even more functionality to a well-designed solution.

Yahoo’s Search for the iPhone aims at reducing the amount of time it takes to search the Web, while allowing you to enjoy using some of the Yahoo applications you may already be using on the desktop.

The offering includes support for Search Assist, which completes your queries before you’ve finished typing them and even works with the company’s SearchMonkey offering, which will bring all your modules from the desktop and port them to your iPhone as long as you’re logged into Yahoo’s site. Other popular pages like, movie showtimes, weather, local results, and Flickr are also included as shortcuts.

Yahoo was quick to tout its latest iPhone solution as the latest and greatest the company has to offer and after using it for a while now, I can say that it works as advertised. Granted, the search results aren’t necessarily as relevant as Google’s, but if you’re a fan of SearchMonkey and you use Yahoo search regularly, you’ll be delightfully surprised by how well it mimics the desktop Yahoo experience.

That said, it’s an online search solution, which may turn some off that are looking for a desktop app that’s similar to Google’s iPhone application. But if that doesn’t bother you and you’re willing to try out Yahoo’s latest iPhone solution, its Yahoo Search offering is a fine place to start.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Yahoo Changes Questionable Sponsored Search Policy. Can Anyone Tell?Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneBebo Partners with Yahoo Search: Acquisition Imminent?Yahoo Starts Layoffs While Deciding What To Do NextYahoo Launches An Eco-Guilt TripFlickr Live Feeds Now Included in Yahoo Image SearchYahoo Adds Wikipedia to oneSearch Mobile Results

Source:Mashable!

I was squinting at Friendfeed today, and I realized that it could really work nicely as a business collaboration tool in a few different ways. Between all the various aggregation points, and the “rooms” function, I think the platform has everyone one would need to cook up a collaboration environment. Here’s what I mean.

Information Inputs

You could configure the following inputs of data to Friendfeed for your team’s account:

* RSS feeds for blogs and other items that are RSS enabled, like status messages and cooked search.

* Flickr photo group input to capture event and staff photos.

* Delicious bookmarks to capture research.

* Twitter/Jaiku/Identi.ca/whatever to capture team status messages.

* SlideShare input to capture pertinent presentations.

* Upcoming.org to map out potential useful company events.

* YouTube to gather up pertinent video.

Add to this a “room” for your group to see all this information in one place, and you’ve built quite an interesting data aggregator.

What Comes Next

For collaboration, Friendfeed has a built in discussion mechanism that’s outside of all those other streams. It has mobile input and other 3rd party services, so you can reach the platform even while out in the field, allowing for more than one use. It allows for textured sharing and hiding, commenting, and instant discussions.

Have information that you need to keep private? Make a group, and keep it invite-only. Put that kind of information in the group area and not the public timeline.

This is not only viable, it’s really actionable. There are several implementations I can imagine:

* News desk.

* Writing topic gathering station.

* Community center.

* Online project team.

* Citizen Journalism group.

* Virtual street team.

Does it make sense to you? Can you see other applications? It just strikes me that a team use could be very powerful. Who knows? Maybe some folks are already doing this. Point them out in the comments.

Chris Brogan is a ten year veteran of using social media and technology to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and makes media of all kinds at [chrisbrogan.com], a social media blog.

FriendFeed company profile provided by TradeVibes

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Mashable Rocks: Connect with us on FriendFeedFriendFeed Launches SearchFriendFeed Recommendations? Who Are You Likely to Like?FriendFeed Gets $5M, Launches to the PublicFormer Googlers Team Up to Launch FriendFeedFriendFeed Brings Twitter BackFriendFeed Launches Rooms. Moving Towards Semantic Web?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 5:57 pm and is filed under News, FriendFeed, business software, collaboration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.