Today's Most popular News

October 15th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Automattic, makers of the WordPress blogging platform, has announced the acquisition of PollDaddy, a company that provides embeddable poll and survey widgets. The deal apparently follows an integration project between the two companies, featuring a PollDaddy’s plugin for WordPress.org blogs as well as an integration with the editor on WordPress.com. Both products are immediately available on the heels of today’s news.

more to follow…

Source:Mashable!

I have been a long time fan of NewsGator’s FeedDemon RSS client, having used it on and off since its very early days when it was owned by Nick Bradbury and cost money for a registered version. Through the years, Nick has always been right there adding new features that he felt added value to the program or were requested by other faithful users. For me, it is the premier feed reader out there.

So last night when I got an email from him asking if I would like a chance to play with a pre-release of the next version, I didn’t have to think twice. Even though I had been giving Google Reader another longer try, I still found I was missing the service. After downloading my copy and effortlessly upgrading my current version, I started checking out FeedDemon’s new tagging feature.

Yes, I know that GReader has had this option from the start, so for the GReader faithful this won’t mean much. However, this is a great addition for those of us that find FeedDemon to be an indispensable tool as part of our blogging tool chest. Using this new feature is as simple as clicking on the Tag icon in individual RSS posts and either adding a new tag or selecting from one you have already used.

One interesting part of the tag editor as well is that it will recommend tags based on the post that you are adding the tags for. If you add a new tag it is added to the treeview tag list, which you can select later to display with any posts that are associated with it.

I’ve only been using this new version since late last night, but already I find it indispensible in letting me save posts to come back to later. Some other notes on the tagging feature:

- Tags are synchronized with NewsGator

- “Subscriptions Home” includes a tag cloud

- Tags can be dragged from the tree and dropped onto a post in a FeedDemon newspaper

- Tagged items can be excluded by the Cleanup Wizard

- Tagged items can be excluded from purging of older articles (click Options on the “Manage Tags” dialog to enable/disable)

- Tagging is now included in the attention algorithm

FeedDemon users should definitely be looking forward to these new additions and getting their hands on this excellent program.

Source:Mashable!

Facebook has announced the 25 winning applications for fbFund, each of which will receive $25,000 they can use toward developing their idea. Additionally, these 25 apps will compete for five $225,000 prizes that will be awarded in December. In all, Facebook – along with venture capital firms Accel Partners and Founder Fund - will distribute up to $10 million to developers.

As opposed to traditional fundraising, the fbFund awards leave the teams with 100% equity, although Facebook and its partner investment firms have first rights to invest should the companies go on to raise more money. In all, Facebook says more than 600 different teams applied, a process that included business plans, actual application development, and video pitches. The 25 winners (with descriptions from Facebook) are listed below, and we’ll have further review and analysis of some of the winning apps later today:

BarTab - Send a drink to a friend, with Facebook! BarTab allows users to send real drinks to each other for only $1. Drinks are redeemed through the user’s cell phone at partnered bars and restaurants.

Black Drumm - Black Drumm develops applications that help users organize events with friends. Whether it is going to a local concert, or planning a trek on Kilimanjaro, the application seamlessly coordinates offline activities; no more chains of emails to sort through, or spreadsheets to maintain.

Bottle Rocket - Bottle Rocket helps users pick the perfect bottle of wine. Users can compare wines with friends on Facebook or on the Bottle Rocket iPhone application. Bottle Rocket then analyzes the wines users have liked with ratings from their friends to make informed recommendations.

Check My Campus - Check My Campus makes the college search process easier, better and more fun. The application allows current college students to share photos and videos about life on their campuses, giving high schoolers an inside look at what real life is like at these different schools.

Daikon - Daikon enables users to build powerful applications on the Facebook platform without writing a single line of code. Daikon produces applications that focus on increasing the enjoyment and productivity of the Facebook experience.

Faithfeed - FaithFeed is an application where users can share about their journey of faith with friends. Through the application, users can share praises, prayer requests, resolutions and the details of what God is teaching them. Users can also keep each other accountable and support each other throughout the week.

Good Call Sports LLC - Good Call Football is an app developed by Good Call Sports that allows users to predict each offensive play during a televised football game, in real time, and compete nationwide based on the accuracy of their predictions.

GroupCard - GroupCard lets users rally their friends to sign the same printable online card to celebrate any occassion. Each friend can add a message, upload photos or audio, and even make a gift contribution. GroupCard started at Stanford, and is already used by thousands of groups worldwide.

HitGrab - MouseHunt, a HitGrab creation, is a game of epic proportions. Players are hunters, hired by the king to trap mice that infest his kingdom. For each mouse caught, users will find a reward, bringing them closer to being the best MouseHunter in the land.

Infrablue Technology - Twenty20 Cricket, a Infrablue Technology app, was developed for cricket fanatics around the world to connect and share their passion via an exciting online cricket manager game. Users compete to be the best team by training their players, and then challenging their friends and other team managers!

Kontagent - Kontagent is the leading viral analytics platform for social network application developers. Kontagent analytics provides deep social data visualization and analysis that delivers actionable insights delivered via a hosted, on-demand service.

Koofers - Koofers helps students create and share information that helps with classes. Users can share old tests, quizzes, and study guides; view current and past grade breakdown and average GPA for every class and professor; review professors and read ratings before signing up for new classes, and get help from other students in the same class.

Newsbrane - Newsbrane recommends news stories and other online content to users based on their interests. Vote items up and down and Newsbrane learns the stories a user wants to see.

Party Buzz - Party Buzz is your source of information for what’s happening offline amongst your friends. Check out your friend’s events, discuss weekend plans, and find the best parties. Bonus feature: for each event check the median age, guy-to-girl ratio, number of singles, and more!

Pongr - Pongr is a mobile price comparison service that lets you check prices online and at nearby stores. While shopping, users can share items with their Facebook friends. Pongr mobile apps, texting, and image recognition makes bargain shopping fun!

ProfessionalProfile - Professional Profile leverages a user’s existing social connections into a professional network.

RealGifts - RealGifts is a social gifting application that allows users to send their friends real, tangible gifts in the mail, without needing to know their friends’ delivery address. Combining “virtual gifting” and eCommerce, RealGifts is the most convenient way to send real gifts to your friends.

Socialfly - Be twice the friend in half the time! Socialfly lets users write their own notes about people, set reminders to talk to friends, and plan fun activities together. Socialfly will soon be available on both Facebook and the iPhone.

Teach the People - Teach the People is an open educational platform. Teachers get the tools to share their expertise, allowing their knowledge to go viral, attract an audience, and be monetized effectively. Students get access to high quality, low cost education in Facebook’s social environment.

The Game Creators - The Game Creators built Social Arcade, an application which users get creative and design their own game from shoot-’em-ups to platformers to racing games and more. Users can give friends the gift of a game and even personalize it.

TrailBehind - TrailBehind helps users find great places to hike. Avid hikers can explore maps, plan trips, log their travels, and work together to build better maps of the outdoors.

vDream Racing - vDream would be Henry Ford’s favorite application on Facebook. vDream offers users access to real cars, real parts, real performance specs, and the ability to connect and compete with other car enthusiasts.

WedSnap - WedSnap created Weddingbook, a social network on Facebook for those preparing for a wedding. Brides and grooms meet on Weddingbook to get advice, support, and inspiration during their engagement and wedding planning process.

Wildfire - Wildfire enables consumers to discover, share and engage with interactive promotions like contests, sweepstakes and give-aways and enables companies to easily create their own attractive, branded promotions that are automatically integrated with Facebook’s social features.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 3:37 pm and is filed under News, facebook, venture capital, fbfund, Facebook Applications. 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.

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Today's Most popular News

Facebook Announces 25 Winning Applications for Initial fbFund Grants

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