In the world of paid digital music downloads, there’s iTunes, Amazon MP3, maybe the Zune Marketplace and eMusic a rung or two lower on the industry ladder. The rest seem to comprise the land of the unspoken. Even Microsoft’s efforts and the indie fave eMusic are susceptible to falling into insignificance. After all, the music industry as a whole, as with virtually any market of capitalist design, tends to support winners. The tracks go where the traffic is. Most of the time anyway. Enough for the strongest of players to claim ubiquity and permanent and unchallenged staying power, and for those underneath to struggle for breath.

You might wonder why it is that I raise a point raised so many times before. The health of the music industry has been opined over ad nauseam, and to do so once more is to toss tired copy on a pile of wasted wordplay, right? Well, it depends, really. The story of the digital sales model is far from complete, and with new developments happening in the land of Apple and Amazon, as well as a steady flow of stories occurring along the fringe of the market, there still is room to press points further along and observe the space from underrepresented perspectives.

The last 24 hours or so, for example, have brought items having to do with a Napster letter addressed to shareholders, in which it notes that it is “open to a sale,” according to Joseph Weisenthal of PaidContent, as well as something or other to do with recently launched LimeWire MP3 Store and a marked 100% growth in its music catalog, to a mere 2 million in total, as noted by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica. These you might thing to be insignificant. And taken as they come, I would admit that they are not very impactful. But if you consider them to be the newest round of pockmarks in the middle- and lower-class digital music scenes, they add to the subtle signs emerging each season that tell us the market’s bottom feeders are not long for this world.

Is that a good thing? Well, only the best survive, yes? Sure, ideally. It’s hard to say who would be left standing. Rhapsody? Maybe. The Zune Marketplace? That’s quite a variable at this point. Microsoft doesn’t seem to be “in it to win it.” On the upside, the loss of such actors - if indeed they do expire in the next year or two or three - would perhaps uncomplicate things more. Too many choices can more detrimental than few in some cases.

But, just for kicks, imagine a world that doesn’t have the spread of choices that we have today. If we start to see Napster, LimeWire, et al., start to drop like flies, what’s to say the consumer will really benefit? Those interested in music subscriptions, say, may no longer have such options. And labels that currently opt for one outlet or another due to variations in revenue agreements, might have to succumb to less advantageous contracts elsewhere. Which could hurt their bottom line. And though more musicians are taking an entirely solo route to promotion, the role of the studio, big or small, remains important. The music industry is busy enough as it is with a small set of great sounds and a vast amount of non-sellers. Some editorial is a good thing.

Granted, there are quite a number of ifs to take into account as things in the digital industry progress, but its certainly worth contemplating its evolving dimensions. It’s not been a decade since music downloads became “popular,” and already we’ve seen it balloon, we’ve seen its squeezed, and we’ve even seen it begin to consolidate.

Some might argue that where one gets his or her downloads won’t matter much. But I disagree. Businesses in a complex market such as media move to higher ground at the expense of others. And the “others” don’t simply get to continue on when left behind. So just know this. It may now seem purposeless to quibble over the failed and the failing. But if all but a few disappear, the consumer experience that might have been - that you can get what you want, how you want - probably won’t be realized. And that’s a shame if proven true. If any paradigm shift of modern making in the media world could be taken closest to an ideal, it is the convenience of the digital music download.

(Image source: Flickr/peymon)

Source:Mashable!

Studies have shown that we spend a great deal of our online time in our inbox. There have been many interesting techniques and strategies for saving time and managing your email in better ways. You know, things like how to be an email ninja, how to achieve inbox zero or how to make peace with your inbox and stop sleeping on the couch (OK, I made that one up, but you get the point).

This won’t be another one of those. Instead, what follows will be a bunch of tools that can make your email client more social networking and social media friendly. These sites and add-ons can make your inbox do more than walk and chew gum at the same time.

Choose Your Weapon

No matter which email client you use, there are cool snap-in tools that can enhance your email experience. Whether it’s Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Apple mail, Mozilla Thunderbird or others, you can add new Web 2.0 functionality to your inbox.

Microsoft Outlook

Xobni: If you want extended information about the people that send you emails then checkout Xobni, which snaps inside Outlook and displays many new details about senders and all of the emails that you’ve exchanged with them. The service now connects directly to users’ LinkedIn accounts if they own one, which opens a whole new world of possibilities.

OutTwit: Adds a tiny toolbar that lets you send new posts to Twitter as well as read and reply. You can now use TinyURL and send direct messages to anyone. The beauty of it all is that it looks like you’re working but you’re actually goofing off with your Twitter pals. You can have all new tweets appear in a folder called Tweets (if desired), just like email. It’s also firewall friendly.

Plaxo with Pulse: Your address book is important and Plaxo with Pulse adds a toolbar that turns your Outlook into a dynamic social network. In essence, it’s like having FriendFeed in your email client. Also, Plaxo will sync all of your contacts online with your local address book. The most powerful feature is the way Plaxo can manage all of your contacts from many different email systems such as Gmail, Yahoo mail, and more.

RSS feeds: Outlook can become an excellent way to keep up with all of your RSS feeds. While I still love Google Reader, I find myself using Outlook’s excellent RSS reader more and more because I am always in my email. I get notified of new blog posts instantly as they appear in my Outlook just like new emails. I’m hoping they will add the sharing capabilities that other readers have but other than that, Outlook RSS reader is a great time saver. Here’s how to add RSS feeds to your Outlook.

TimeBridge: One of the best features of Outlook is the ability to check everyone’s calendars for meeting availability times. The problem with that excellent feature is that it only works inside the firewall within an organization’s private network. Well, that is no longer the case thanks to services like TimeBridge. The service snaps into Outlook and allows you to share your calendar and availability with people outside of your firewall and local network. This is a powerful way to schedule appointments that will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration. Here’s an excellent DemoGirl screencast.

Gmail

Xoopit: Is one of the most innovative things to happen to email. It enables you to aggregate all of the images and videos from your Gmail account in a useful manner. You can view Flickr pictures and YouTube videos all in one place inside your email client. You can also easily share any of it with friends from your social networks like Facebook or with your own blog.

Better Gmail: Is a FireFox extension that integrates a bunch of cool features, i.e. attachment icons, attachment reminder, mail preview, filter assistant, label colors, macros, and saved searches. It’s in this roundup because you can make GMail look like one of those Ajaxy Web 2.0 sites you love so much.

GetSpace: Allows you to use some of that glorious space in your gmail account as storage just like Box.net.

gDisk: Is similar to getSpace but for Mac users.

Gmail + Google reader: Is a FireFox monkey script that integrates GMail with Google Reader

Remember the Milk: Is an excellent site to keep track of your to do lists. This Firefox extension will allow you to snap it into your Gmail system! It’s a perfect one-two punch.

Apple Mail

Soocial: Like Plaxo but only for the Mac, not really for Apple Mail. It does sync your contacts from Mac OS address books as well as from Gmail and even HighRise.

httpMail Plugin: Allows Apple Mail to work with Hotmail accounts.

How to add gmail to Apple Mail: Includes a screencast demonstrating how easy it is to do.

How to import RSS feeds into Apple Mail : Good technique for bringing feeds to your Mac Inbox.

MailTags: Adds the ability to tag your emails with keywords or categories that you can then use in Spotlight searches or Smart Mailboxes. It lets you add notes, priorities, and due dates to messages, as well as tag RSS articles when read in Mail.

MiniMail: Comes in handy by minimizing the Mail window down to a much smaller version that displays previews of incoming email messages. You can also work with and respond to emails directly from this mini window. This is a great way to multitask while on your social networks.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Feed Mailer: Allows access to RSS feeds through email. This is especially useful for those users that have limited Internet access or are in environments that prohibit certain computer use such as government or education institutions. It also enables less savvy users who are more comfortable with an email interface to benefit from RSS feeds.

SMSClient: Firefox/Thunderbird extension that enables you to send SMS messages directly from your Browser or email application.

SixSense Toolbar: Lets you find people in your area and locate friends. In addition, it provides bulletin boards that are tied to the specific location that you are at. You can use it on your Wi-Fi enabled laptop at cafes, the library, etc.

Apple Mail: Makes your Thunderbird mail look like Apple Mail.

Zindus: Lets you Sync your Address Book with Google and manage your Gmail, Google Reader or Google Calendar contacts from Thunderbird and vice-versa.

Contacts Sidebar: Embeds your address book in the sidebar so you can surf your social networks on the same screen and still have access to your contacts.

Conclusion

As with the suggestions we make for FireFox extensions, we highly recommend that you do NOT attempt to install too many of these email add-ons and plugins at one time! If you do, you risk bringing your email client to its knees and possibly damaging it. So, we recommend trying them one at a time to see which ones you like best. The more memory and better horse power your system has, the better. In the end, you will find that it makes a lot of sense to add tools that will allow you to multitask while working with your email client. 

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Now Facebook Wants to Own Your EmailFlock Announces Beta 1.1 at MacWorldFuser to Launch Email Aggregating ServiceLinkSpank: A Naughty Version of Digg?E-mail Organizer Xobni Goes To Invite-only BetaXoopit Upgrade: Search Your Gmail Photos, Videos and Files [Invites]Email Becomes a “Digg” Network with Grouptivity’s iPond

Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.

Which note taking applications do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.

Evernote

Evernote is one of the most talked about online note taking applications. One special feature here is the drag-and-drop desktop version that allows you to see your notes and clips offline. You can use the Evernote mobile application for your Windows Mobile phone or iphone to capture pictures and record audio to send to your Evernote account. You can also email notes to Evernote using a secret email address.

Google Notes

Google Notes has some nice features including collaboration among multiple users, a publishing feature, integration with Google Bookmarks, the ‘Unfiled bookmarks’ link on the left sidebar of the Google Notes Web interface that sorts and displays all the urls you have saved, quick clippings of Web pages with the ’star’ button, and the export to Google Docs feature.

UberNote

UberNote works in the same manner as Google Notes. However, one neat feature here is that you can add your tasks in any note that you are working on. Later, you can view the ‘Open Tasks’ link on the sidebar of the UberNote interface to open all notes with incomplete tasks. Similarly, you can integrate your bookmarks with any note and find it later with the ‘Bookmarks’ link. Other nice things to know about UberNote are that it runs on AJAX and has a history feature that will save all the revisions you make on your notes. You can clip notes with the UberNote online dashboard, with the browser extension, email your notes to a personal email address, or from an AOL IM application.

Springnote

Springnote is an OpenID enabled online note taking application that takes a different approach than the ones mentioned above. This one is not for writing short notes and clipping websites, but longer notes, and comes out just a bit different than an average online office suite. The Springnote note editor is feature rich and you can choose from a variety of templates, plugins , and insert video and audio to enhance your notes. You can collaborate, share your notes with friends, or post them on your blog.

WebAsyst Notes

WebAsyst Notes comes with features for including attachments to your notes. You can sort the notes into specific folders and share the folders with your contacts. WebAsyst also has features to add files, photos, contacts, mail, projects, an issue tracker, pages, and a shopping cart.

Luminotes

Luminotes,a personal wiki notebook, as the site describes itself, is an easy to use wiki that lets you create notes. You can attach files to your wiki, and share them with your friends. Features such as automatic saving and revision tracking are very useful. Once you have completed your wiki, you can download it as well. This is not one of the conventional online notebooks but a key reason why you might want to use this is because of one feature that allows you to hyperlink one word or sentence in a notebook to another.

Stikkit

Stikkit wants to be a smart application without being clever. What it does is pick up specific terms from your notes and arrange your notes as to-do lists, calendars, contacts (peeps), bookmarks and tags list. Now is that smart enough? You can also choose to share your Stikkit notes with your contacts and receive comments. For quick Web clippings, it provides a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari, and a right click menu option for Internet Explorer users.

Fruitnotes

Fruitnotes allows you to create notes by calling a specific phone number, though currently they have only listed a US and UK number. It also allows you to create your own profile and view others’, thus doubling up as a social networking platform. The note editor is feature rich and lets you upload images and videos. Once done, you can publish your note for everyone to see.

Notefish

Notefish is a simple online note taking application that allows you to drag and drop your notes, resize them, color them, tag them, and share with contacts. You can also move one note from a particular project to another easily. There is a Firefox addon that you can use to clip Web pages conveniently.

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is the most sophisticated and most feature-laden online note application of the bunch. Zoho Notebook provides you a palette where you can type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. There are also various tools like the Line tool, Freehand tool, Select tool, Hand tool, and Shapes. There is a rich text editor with export, publish, and share features. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats and IP telephony, or use the Firefox plugin to add Web clips easily. If you are the advanced online notebook user type, then you will find Zoho Notebook providing the solutions to almost all your requirements. I said ‘almost,’ as I couldn’t find a mobile phone support for Zoho.

[Image credit: Jacob Boetter (attribution)]

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:NoteSake Supports All Languages & Exports to WordKeep Thoughts on your iPhone with PogoNotesZoho DB Launches, Beats Google Docs to the PunchJjot Takes Pink Stickies Online for Note TakingThe Daily Poll: Would You Build Apps for the MySpace Developer Platform?Wakoopa Now Tracks your iPhone AppsLookery to be Advertising Network for Facebook Apps

Source:Mashable!

BlastGroups is a new service that has set out to replace your casual groups on sites like Yahoo with features that combine group capabilities with email blasts, in order to easily share content with a given group of friends. BlastGroups gives users the ability to create and join multiple groups, and manage content across these groups.

Instead of a networking format that you may be accustomed to, BlastGroups works a lot more like Twine, with a bit of Pownce functionality mixed in for sharing a stream of content with friends. You can bookmark content as you surf the Web and pick which groups you’d like to share this content with. Beyond this bookmarking feature, you can also share files and photos with a given group, similar to box.net.

The email-blasting capability comes into play when you share content with friends, but it’s still limited in the traditional sense of email blasts, which are typically used for marketing purposes. Personally, I think this is a good thing. But you can still create an event and send out a blast to friends, so there is the potential for BlastGroups to become a marketing tool that mimics social media sharing and not just a direct marketing tool. In some regards, this could be a new way in which people can reach out to a group of contacts, but BlastGroups, as a more social tool, doesn’t have the robust features for doing things like collecting and managing contact information such as mobile phone numbers.

One drawback to a service like BlastGroups is that it has little import integration with other bookmarking and networking sites. As sites like Facebook add more capabilities for private network sharing, friends lists, and privacy settings, the ability to share content and send messages out to a group of selected few, the capability that BlastGroups provides is essentially contained within Facebook. Nevertheless, additional integration with bookmarking tools and social media sharing sites will make the use of BlastGroups’ service easier for end users.

BlastGroups company profile provided by TradeVibes

For most of us, Gmail can be the simple answer to aggregating all of our emails together in one place. But for those who are looking for something new with a bit more spice, there are a whole new breed of email aggregators that promise to redefine the way we look at and use our inboxes. Here are 6 online email aggregators that do more than just aggregate.

Zenbe

Zenbe, “designed to be the world’s best email experience,” is the coolest new kid on the block and might just emerge as the big guy soon enough. The advertisement-free service offers you an email program, startup page, calendar, files directory, task list, your Facebook updates, Twitter, a chat application, Delicious, and address book all in one place. While you might be getting many of these features in other email programs, the presentation and flawless execution is what make Zenbe a clear winner.

The calendar, startup page, file directory, and email come in tabs in the center of the page. There is a right-hand sidebar that executes the Twitter, Facebook, chat and to-do list applications. Zenbe can get your emails from other email services like Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, and MSN using POP. What I particularly like about Zenbe is the start-up page titled “ZenPage” that will definitely change the way we look at emails and start-up pages. You can have members at your ZenPage and chat with them live from your account.

Orgoo

Orgoo is similar to Zenbe but in a much simpler form. If you take away Zenbe’s ZenPage, Facebook, Twitter, and a few other features, you are left with Orgoo. The service provides you with an inbox and a chat application on the right-hand sidebar, and aggregates your SMS messages, but what is really striking about Orgoo is its video chat feature. Orgoo’s video chat allows you to use any webcam and start chatting from your account page.

Fuser

Fuser, as the name suggests, simply fuses all your email accounts, including AIM, AOL, Comcast, POP3, IMAP, Gmail, Hotmail, Live, Netscape, Outlook, Yahoo, and more, in one place. Not only that, you can also get and reply to your MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter messages from the Fuser inbox.

TopicR

TopicR is not really about aggregating your emails from all of your other email addresses, but experiencing a whole new way of using email while still retaining your old email addresses. I can bet some of the features in TopicR will make you say “wow.” With TopicR you can send private emails that can’t be forwarded or copied. It also acts a file upload service where you can upload a number of pictures or audio files that your recipients can see online so that their inboxes don’t get clogged. You can mix music and pictures in your attachments and create a slide show. You can also create an RSS feed of your email.

TopicR acts as a social networking platform where you can browse through the publicly shared content and connect with other readers. What I find particularly interesting is the Activity Stream, which in TopicR’s words is “the stream of people’s activities around your email topics and contents.” Talk about the next generation of email - this could be close.

Goowy

Goowy is for the Flash fans out there. It provides you a Flash based webtop that includes features like email, calendar, contact management, a startup page, IM, file storage, and more. You can add your Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail accounts into Goowy using POP3. There are plenty of customization options that you can choose from, including dozens of inbox skins.

Jubii

Jubii not only aggregates your different email accounts but acts as a smart service that adapts according to your usage patterns. For example, it sorts out your incoming emails into your private and public inboxes and highlights important senders. It provides a file storage center with a 10 GB space for the first 1 million beta users and 4 GB per user thereafter that you can use to store any type of files and share easily with your contacts.

Jubii also acts like a social networking platform where you can see who is online and connect with them in real time. Instead of emailing, you can choose to call your contacts on landline and mobile phones using the service. The following countries are supported currently for the online telephony service: US, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and United Kingdom. Jubii currently allows you to call and talk your contacts for 30 minutes a day or 3 hours per month for free.  Jubii also provides an RSS feed reader feature that you might want to check out.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:GloobTV Launches Human-Powered Video AggregatorTwitterMail Lets You Tweet from your Email AccountContactify Creates URL for your Email AddressYouTube Desktop Easily Aggregates ClipsInsiderPages - User-Generated Business ReviewsFav.or.it: 200 Invites for Mashable ReadersFTC: Bogus Email Alert

We’ve touched on the subjects of social networking addiction (and fatigue) in the past, but a new survey from AOL Mail shows just how hooked Americans are on email. Among the findings are that 59% of us check our email from the bathroom – no wonder one of the first questions T-Mobile’s customer service asks when you report a malfunctioning device is whether or not there is water damage!

The study of 4,000 users also showed people checking their email with regularity from the following unusual and perhaps inappropriate locales:

• In bed in their pajamas: 67%

• From the bathroom: 59%

• While driving: 50%

• In a bar or club: 39%

• In a business meeting: 38%

• During happy hour: 34%

• While on a date: 25%

• From church: 15% (up from 12% last year)

According to the study – which can be read in full at crazyforemail.com – the most email addicted cities are New York, Houston, and Chicago, with San Francisco coming in at a surprisingly low 5th.

The report also includes a word to the wise regarding email sign-offs: 25% report being annoyed by “xoxo” while “cheers” irritated 13% of the respondents.

Meanwhile, we thought we’d run the same poll for Mashable readers and see how your email addiction stacks up:

If you have a more bizarre location from which you’ve checked email, feel free to share the story in the comments

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:MySpace Teams with Drug Company to Launch Site Addressing AddictionGet Pwned By The Horde - On Your MobileFuzzy Math: Facebook Costs Australia $4 Billion in Lost ProductivityTwitterMail Lets You Tweet from your Email AccountContactify Creates URL for your Email AddressFav.or.it: 200 Invites for Mashable ReadersFTC: Bogus Email Alert

Swiss-based Dixero has announced that they have raised a new round of funding in the amount of 1.5 million Euros. This brings their total funding to 3 million Euros. Last week Dixero announced the opening of an office in Silicon Valley.

Dixero provides a way to take RSS feeds and convert them to audio so that you can listen to your favorite feeds instead of reading them in a "traditional" sense. Dixero offers three "audio personalities", Lois, Luke and Claire so that you can vary the voice that you hear for different feeds. It can help with differentiation from one feed to the next.

We’ve also reviewed BlogBard and PimpMyNews - two other feed-to-audio services. The key to these services is to make the voice as close to human as possible.

Here’s an example of the Dixero audio conversion - it sounds "computerized" (it looks like you need some sort of xml plugin - IE is asking me to install something for this to play):

Here’s the 20-second pitch Dixero provided earlier this month in Zurich:

Partner Links
– Free Online Budgeting Software

Source:CenterNetworks

Yakov is reporting that Digital Sky Technologies has obtained an additional 15% stake in Mail.ru from Tiger Global Management for $180-200 million. This moves Digital Sky Technologies’ into the majority stakeholder position with 50.6%. Yakov also notes, "It’s also reported that DST could be selling a controlling stake in itself to Alisher Usmanov, founder of Metalloinvest and owner of Kommersant publishing house. Kommersant recently merged its online newspaper Gazeta.ru into LiveJournal’s owner SUP."

Mail.ru has 6.2 million daily visitors and 14.7 million monthly visitors and one of the stakeholders reported income of $56 million for year 2007. DST’s assets range somewhere between $1.1 billion and $3 billion.

Mail.ru was voted one of the top Web sites in Russia earlier this year.