We here at Mashable are fond of the practice of putting 2 and 2 together to make something better than if they were to remain apart. Whether it’s a mashup engineered largely from scratch or something made through Yahoo Pipes or with some nifty API(s), it’s grand to see progress made.

At the same time, we’re also fond of simple things that, in a manner of speaking, “get the job done.” And that’s what the Simple Map Generator happens to do. In effect, it is a Google Map matched with an international paint brush. The better to help you be more like Matt Harding.

In fact, the uses of the engine can be quite extensive. If you’re a chronic traveler, you can document your global movements to complement a blog you might be publishing, for instance. Or if you’re playing an instructional or educational role in some fashion, it can be an easy way to present countries and historical transitions that you’re focusing on at a given time. The list goes on. (I wrote brief guides to worldly places in a past life.)

And it’s so easy to use, really (it’s aided by the Google Chart API), that only one issue can cause you to search elsewhere for a service that allows you to treat the map of the world as your own virtual coloring book. Interestingly enough, that issue is the coloring tool itself. It only provides one color option for every embed manufactured. (29travels, the host of the application, offers another map maker, but it proves much less appealing despite its technical promises.)

A paradox in the making? Perhaps that’s to keep it as minimally divisive (the age-old “red vs. blue” position) as possible. What do you think? Share your thoughts!

Powered by 29travels

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Web 2.0 Button GeneratorIs Stripe Generator a Joke?FlickrSlidr - Embed Flickr Slideshows into Your BlogWashington Post Acquires College Match Engine CourseAdvisor5 Free Tools to Password-Protect Your WebsiteForget Photoshop: 15 Online Graphics Generators20 Icon & Graphics Generators

DiggTop is an Adobe Air desktop app that scrapes and displays the images and videos from the Digg stories that you choose to track. After installing DiggTop you customize which categories you want to follow for News, Videos and Images. You can then view a slideshow of the images related to the stories you’re reading.

As for videos, DiggTop does a similar thing. You can change which topics you want to follow for video and they will appear in the app’s player which does a good job handling video.

At any time, you can launch a browser session and go to any particular story on Digg by double-clicking it. This comes in handy whenever you want access to the Digg service. However, the app can provide most of the day to day features of Digg such as reading and digging stories.

MP4 / Subscribe for Free!

I know there have been way too many useless Adobe Air apps unleashed to our desktops lately, but I think DiggTop is actually a rare useful one. If you want a quick glimpse at the hottest news items along with a visual slideshow of images and the ability to play videos instantly right next to the story then DiggTop is the app for you. It’s small and fast and gives Digg a new look and feel.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:7 Awesome Things Built on the Digg APIThe 10 Coolest Apollo Apps30+ Adobe AIR AppsDIGG TOOLBOX: 50+ Digg Tools and ResourcesMashable On Digg: Our 50 Most Popular Stories

Source:Mashable!

Among the hundreds of companies and social platforms debuting at Web 2.0 Expo NY was Xignite, a new financial web service. Xignite’s platform lets financial sites show global delayed stock data in their applications and satisfies the growing demand for reliable stock quotes from emerging countries.

MP4 / Subscribe for Free

Xignite uses an on-demand model to serve clients like ING, Goodyear, and McDonald’s and provide market quotes, news, corporate data, industry information, analytics, tools and more. Until recently, much of the data that Xignite collects and organizes was otherwise scattered, raw or only available in bulk form. With their services, Xignite is leading the way for service-oriented business applications.

I had the opportunity to meet with Stephane Dubois, the CEO and Founder of Xignite, and discuss Xignite’s goals, special features and Splice, their new platform for creating web services mashups. (And, I don’t need to remind you how excited I get about mashups). Using the Splice visual designer, developers can create a mashup in just 60 seconds by dragging and dropping objects without ever having to write code.

A special thanks to Sony for letting me use their amazing TG1 HD camcorder, without which none of the Web 2.0 Expo videos would have been possible. You can watch the video via the embed below or download the MP4 directly.

My favorite mashup of the week is the new TwitterFeed and Social Actions mashup for social change. The mashup was built by TwitterFeed’s Mario Menti in collaboration with Social Actions and inspired by Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Twitter application.

What the Social Actions Twitter mashup does is make Twittering for a cause as easy as using TwitterFeed or Alltop. This brings us a huge step forward in the ways we can bring online efforts for social change into the offline world, and spread the word about the causes and charities we support.

The interface is simple (and we all know how social media users appreciate simplicity). You add your cause category (climate change, poverty, preventing cruelty to animals, whatever your cause may be). You choose an Action Type from a list of actions in a drop down menu on the simple form. These include group fundraisers, events, campaigns, pledged actions, affinity groups, volunteering, micro credit loans, petitions, and more. You then enter your Twitter information, and the mashup tweets about your cause for you.

The mashup checks once each day for new postings related to your cause and action type, then sends a tweet on your behalf that includes the phrase “Take Action” to differentiate from your normal tweeting. The actions are pulled from 24 participating cause-based social action platforms, including: Amazee, CauseCaller, BringLight, Care2PetitionSite, CharityFocus.Org, Change.Org, ChangingThePresent, Democracy in Action, Christmas Future, Delicious, Fundable, DonorsChoose.org, FirstGiving, GlobalGiving (UK and US), GiveMeaning, JustMeans, HelpALot, Idealist.org, Nabuur, Microgiving, Prax.ca, Kiva, PledgeBank, ThePoint, PincGiving, SixDegrees, Razoo, Zazingo and VolunteerMatch.

By making it easy to get the word out, the Social Actions Twitter mashup will help causes reach a growing number of people. Social Actions joins the ranks of sites like SocialVibe, another site that generates widgets and other easy ways to drive interest to a cause. Social Action has hit upon the right mix, whereas with SocialVibe you sign up on a site that works a bit like a social network, with Social Actions you don’t have to sign up for anything - you just act on behalf of your cause.

Social Actions has been creating widgets and plugins to make being active for a cause easy for a while now (there is a WordPress plugin by Social Actions, for example, as well as widgets for things like BlogActionDay and other causes). They even launched a Facebook group to mesh with the Twitter mashup. This Twitter mashup was simply the next logical step for the company to continue making awareness as easy as clicking your mouse.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Actics Celebrates Do-GoodersMySpace Cooperating with Attorneys General to Find Sex OffendersMakeMeSustainable Launches Great Community for Living GreenAnalysis: Facebook is No Google Threat … YetFacebook Aims to Stop Mini-Feed SpamFacebook To Stop The Spam? Depends Who Follows The (New) LawSMCB: Bank Robber Friends Investigator on MySpace

I’m sorry, I can’t help it - I’m a sucker for mashups. Which is why I have to bring the latest one to your attention: Tumbltape.

It’s exactly how it sounds: a Muxtape for Tumblr. Just when you thought Muxtape was gone for good, it has inspired John Zanussi and Adam Gotterer to catch on the music sharing wave and create Tumbltape, which takes the latest songs (aka - audio files) from each user’s tumblelog and creates a playlist.

When new songs are added, your Tumbltape playlist is automatically updated. Plus, you can choose to let Tumbltape figure out the artist and track names based on the text from your post, or you can type in the artists and track titles yourself. Simple as that.

Secretly I am wondering how long this will last, but if the Tumblr community loves it and Muxtape users pick up on the service it will certainly be hard to shut down, at least until the RIAA finds out about it.

Sarah Palin, the 11th governor of Alaska, has been chosen as Senator John McCain’s running mate for the 2008 presidential election.

Who is she?  How does she stand on the issues that matter the most to you?  Where can you learn more about her?  Mrs. Palin was Miss Alaska in 1986, and is now married to Todd Palin, with whom she has had five children.  She served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska City Council in 1992 and 1996.  There is a lot more out there you can learn, especially on the hot button issues, and hopefully these websites will help you figure out if she is the vice president for you.

You can also check out the resources we compiled for Joe Biden to compare the two side by side.

FollowTheMoney.org - A database of contributors to her 2006 run for governor.

Governor of Alaska - Mrs. Palin is only the eleventh governor of Alaska, and won the seat in 2006.

National Governors Association - Biography on the National Governors Association website.

OnTheIssues.org - A quick bullet point list showing you how Palin has voted and stands on some of the key issues.

PalinForGovernor.com - A hold over site from when she was running for governor, but gives you an overview of her stances on issues and more.

Sarah Palin Politician Facebook Page - A basic Facebook politician page where you can show your support for her.

VoteSmart.org - A bullet point list of her career and organizations she has belonged to.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Sarah Lane Explains It All [podcast]Latest Justin.tv Channel Launched in Bay AreaBusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy Writes Web 2.0 ExposeParis is No Silicon Valley: Neither is EuropeAnnouncing Girls in Tech femme-POWER RoundUpLive Video is Coming to YouTube in 2008Grand Effect Blog Network Relaunches

Source:Mashable!

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Nofouls

20-word Description: Nofouls.com is a communication tool intended to accomplish one thing: Get other ballers to the basketball court when you wanna play.

CEO’s Pitch: Showing up to your local public basketball courts, trying to get a pick-up game started is a hit or miss scenario. Because of the difficulties involved in getting a game started, less people show up to the courts and the likelihood of actually gathering enough people to start playing a game is further diminished. This pattern repeats itself, resulting in most basketball courts ending up vacant the vast majority of the time.

Nofouls.com was created with the purpose of reversing this cycle. Nofouls.com makes it easy to find basketball courts in your area. Our database currently features over 1000 basketball courts. If a court is missing, it can easily be added using Google Maps satellite view to pinpoint its location. Players can schedule games, communicate, and coordinate with each other, all centered around their basketball court of choice.

Mashable’s Take: Based in Philadelphia, PA., Nofouls is, as the descriptions above suggest, a very basic service. It has only one outstanding purpose. To chart and track what is happening, where it is happening. But that I think is what holds an appeal. Nothing excessive about it. All you get is a database of basketball courts, laid upon a Google Map mashup, and a way to organize play in those locations listed. I imagine lots of fans of the game will appreciate the simplicity.

NO, there’s nothing super social about it. And given its focus on some 1,000 courts in and around its home city, many a visitor will perhaps find that it holds no relevance to them. But users’ ability to add local spots to the existing supply keeps it interesting. If its creators manage to convince enough people to sign on and contribute, Nofouls’ utility will grow tremendously. Maybe to the point that it becomes a national, if not international resource for people to better network their own communities through. What’s more, it wouldn’t be too big a leap for Nofouls to eventually involve traveling tournaments, perhaps to coincide with March Madness, or even to establish a seasonal or annual calendar all its own.

For the time being, the foundation of Nofouls seems a solid one. It’s easy to use, and its visual appeal will serve a very general audience, both of which are important to its success. There’s the matter of a first sale as well as the need to register return visitors. And I sense it is capable of making good on each task.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

Some of the first-day statistics are in for JibJab’s video ditty for the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. And a number of figures, when placed side by side, are pretty interesting. It turns out that among the third-party channels utilized to spread the jingle far and wide, none other than Microsoft’s MSN Video site charted some 870,000 views, effectively landing it at #1. The industry giant YouTube netting just over 100k, placing it third, where it sat behind MySpace TV’s view count of 255k plus by the 24th hour.

This afternoon, those three channels report views of 907k, 157k, and 267k, respectively.

Where MSN Video failed to muster a good amount of momentum, however, is in user response. While YouTube and MySpace have seen thousands of viewer comment posts combined, Microsoft is largely barren, with a mere 6 to name currently. Peculiar? Oddities on the Web are known to surface, so this may well be MSN’s lucky day. More to the point, JibJab is showing a healthy start in its move toward matching or perhaps even surpassing the benchmark previously set by 2004’s famous “This Land is Your Land.”

Of course, ample time has not yet passed to offer a sensible prediction on the matter. We’ll have to revisit the comparison if and when a substantive trend arises.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:JibJab Takes $3 Million in Fresh FundingJibJab’s Hilarious Video Greeting CardsMake Your Own JibJab MoviesBrain Dead Republicans & Zombie Democrats Duke it Out on JibJabJibJab Debuts its Election Video Carnival for 2008In Case You’re Still Not Ready for Valentines Day… JibJab and FaceSpaceImeem Gets Full Length Horror Film: Debuts Next Week

Source:Mashable!

Many companies are intrigued by the concept of social media, but have no idea how to actually integrate it into business practices. In an earlier post, we explored one approach to putting a simple social media plan in place.

Changing employee behavior is challenging, and social media participation is often looked at as an additional burden rather than leveraged to improve the efficiency of a current task. Unless traditional communications are replaced with social media infused conversations though, it’s difficult to seed corporate adoption of these new tools.

Here’s a list to stimulate ideas for better social media integration into traditional business practices, which we’ve broken down by department:

Human Resources

Introducing New Employees. Many companies ask new hires to send an email introduction to their department or to the entire company (depending on its size). Instead, start an internal blog or social network where new employees can post their introductions and connect with other employees that share their interests. Dow Chemical is one large company that launched an internal social network.

Employee Newsletters. Replace the monthly employee newsletter with regular updates to an internal blog. Use tags or keywords to categorize the content, which gives employees a searchable database of information about the company rather than a folder full of emails that are cumbersome to review. Then when employees contact HR with questions about 401(k) contributions or sick days, direct them to the appropriate post on the blog. Employees can also pose questions and HR will be able to answer them once for everyone to see.

Training. Depending on your business, consider leveraging one of many virtual world environments for training purposes. For a business that deals with customers, create a replica of your store or office where new employees can engage in a variety of real world scenarios, from responding to customer questions to learning where to find inventory and supplies.

Sales

Sales Collateral. An internal wiki allows sales teams scattered in various locations to create, collect, share and download the most updated sales material from one location. By limiting the exchange of PowerPoint presentations, product sell sheets and other support collateral to one place, management eliminates a significant amount of heavy email storage and ensures everyone has access to the most updated information in real time as well as improves the ability to track edits and updates by team members.

Lead generation. Many business people create profiles on popular social networking sites like LinkedIn. However, few use it for more than a contact database. Sales teams can leverage their vast network of contacts to generate sales leads, secure new business introductions and demonstrate industry knowledge. Sales managers can incorporate social networking challenges into sales goals.

Management Communications. An internal blog run by the sales leads is an ideal platform for team communications. To ensure participation, ask each sales team member to leave a comment confirming they read the post.

Marketing/Communications

Public Relations. With an external facing corporate blog, the communications team can engage its publics (customers, media, analysts or other audiences) in brand conversations. Blogs can extend the conversation beyond the press release, provide a platform for thought leadership, and in the case of a crisis, prove an invaluable channel for direct community communications.

Interactive Newsroom. Create an interactive newsroom where traditional media and bloggers can find links to the company’s social presence. This may include high resolution product photos hosted on Flickr, a link to the company’s Twitter profile, a bundle of RSS feeds for the company’s blogs, a searchable repository of podcasts, or even social profiles for media contacts (AIM/Skype/Avatar).

Better Customer Engagement. Several companies, including Starbucks and Dell, have created social networks where customers can provide direct feedback on products and services as well as interact with each other. This two way channel allows for improved customer relations and a much quicker feedback loop with the company’s most loyal customers. Even in the B2B space, a blog or social network created exclusively for a specific customer set demonstrates a commitment to customer service and illustrates your company’s efforts to get as close to your customer as possible.

Thought leadership. A CEO can submit an op-ed piece to the Wall Street Journal or Inc., but those opportunities are few and far between. Supplement traditional thought leadership pieces with a monthly or quarterly podcast, where employees can discuss industry trends and company views to a wider audience. These podcasts also become sales engagement tools and can be posted to internal employee blogs as well. And you don’t have to be a big company to host a successful podcast, as this example illustrates.

Product/Design Group

Customer Support. A staple of many technology companies, support forums are searchable threads of conversations where engineers or product designers can answer questions and help troubleshoot issues. The best part is that once a question is answered, the link to the discussion thread can be shared with others who have the same question, eliminating duplicate efforts.

Product Prototypes. Creating prototypes is an expensive endeavor for many businesses. Furthermore, it’s difficult to share prototypes with teams spread out around the world. Virtual worlds allow for teams to collaborate in real time with 3D models, which are less expensive to create and easier to discuss during the development phase.

Innovation. An internal platform where engineers or designers are encouraged to share their most outrageous ideas, pet projects, or passions often helps foster creativity. This in turn leads to new products and a greater sense of community at every level of the company.

Conclusion

There are many more ideas than just those listed here. If you have tips on how your company uses social media to improve productivity or otherwise improve the flow of information between groups, please share them in the comments.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Aloha Social Media Summit Hawaii Discount CodeSmall World Labs Gets $1M to Compete with KickApps, et al.Save the Date for the New Communications Forum 2008Canadian Bosses Think Facebook Is More Important than TVBe a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox ExtensionTicket Giveaway to SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CABusiness 2.0 May Be Getting the Axe from Time Inc.

Source:Mashable!

Editor’s Note: If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion in “The Startup Review” series, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: UEatCheap

20-word Description: UEatCheap is a interactive website which helps you find places to eat for $10 or less.

CEO’s Pitch: Whether traveling or moving to a new city, or going away for college, it is difficult to find great local places to eat for cheap.  At UEatCheap, our goal is to empower individuals to find great places to eat for $10 or less.  We are dedicated to mapping the location of all inexpensive restaurants.

UEatCheap is searchable by city, zip code, and restaurant type.  Additionally, we provide users the ability to add new restaurants, as well as rate and review restaurants.

Mashable’s Take: The learning curve for UEatCheap is virtually nonexistent. Simple, fast, and easy are all part and parcel of the alpha’s design, and its reach across an international spectrum of foods is hugely useful. Greek? French? Asian? Korean? Thai? All have their own pin color, and if you’re anywhere near a relatively big city - particularly Boston, Chicago, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other major metropolises, the results are plentiful.

You can drag your way around the Google Map embed if you wish, to get a wider view of a chosen area. The results can also be modified according to options in the left-hand menu after you make your initial search. You can focus on a spot as specific as a half-mile in radius, or take a peek at what’s available within 10 miles of a given location. Again, this is all self-explanatory once you give it a try first-hand.

Visually speaking, there isn’t anything especially impressive about UEatCheap. It’s quite sparse, apart from the essential items and a few ads. (The front page, in addition to the main search box, also offers the option to subscribe to the “best deals and ideals” via email. Users who wish to contribute to the resource can sign up for an account in order to build upon the existing restaurant database and write reviews.) But such a basic construction can only be to its benefit. The purpose of such a project is to do one thing and do it well. As a service not yet in beta, even, UEatCheap has aptly managed the task. It’s certainly worth a bookmark.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials