TechAddress

Ziipa Web 2.0 Search: Indie Web Apps FTW!

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:32:50 +0000

We’re in the final 72 hours of the presidential campaign in the US, which many in the press and the blog space regard as one of the most contentious and captivating of any in recent history.

Yes, now is when fevers climb; voters arrange their car pools; a torrent of advertisements floods the ocean of marketing already in play; law ornaments stand tallest; and nerves tremble and fray. Which we think makes this the ideal time to do a final tally of all the sites, services, highlights and memories that have made this the most socially involved election in a generation.

Where better to start than thick in the viral realm of the social media space? Web video has play a key role in the national political conversation, as we all recognize. I’ve said several times that this is in fact the YouTube election. That position is only solidified with activities like YouTube’s VideoYourVote experiment.

What’s more, we’ve seen highlights from SNL and beyond that will make you laugh, cry, grimace, and fume. And it just so happens that Senator John McCain paid a visit to NBC’s New York studios this weekend to cap both campaigns’ scripted comedy trail. Here is a clip from last night’s show.

Keep in mind, humor is far from finished in this final stretch of the election. Comedy Central plans to infuse its Indecision2008 website with Meebo’s chat service to allow for live blogging and live conversation during the entire stretch of November 4. How’s that for awesome?

Now, if you’d like to spend some time away from humor and instead debate the political slant of various video clips from recent history as it pertains to the candidates and their policies, TubeTheVote may well be the place for you. It’s a content sieve with some visual sparkle. Interesting indeed.

It’s quite well known to anyone whose paid a visit to Twitter in the past two months that the microblogging extraordinaire has paid special attention to all things to do with US politics. More recently, however, the act of voting and all it entails in polling centers across the country is more or less Topic Numero Uno. For more on that matter, there is really only one Twitter-powered engine to consult with: TwitterVoteReport. Give it a look-see!

Naturally, campaign fodder in the social media space has stirred a massive amount of debate on all sides of the proverbial aisle. For those who live for Red vs. Blue, Repubican vs. Democrat vs. Independent, and the myriad other topics that whet the palates of armchair pundits everywhere, we assembled for you a collection of sites open for political debate.

Want to send John McCain, Barack Obama, or even George W. Bush a message? A simple service called What Would You Say To The President is open for submissions. On the other hand, if you want to broadcast to the world which side you support, be it Obama-Biden, McCain-Palin, or even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a fictional Schwarzenneger-Bloomberg ticket, or “Cthulthu,” there is WhyWeVote.org to spend a moment with.

SocialMedian, a social news service we’ve talked about a number of times in months past, has put together an Election 2008 center in association with The Washington Post to keep a close eye on the social media world during the final 3 days of the campaign. To call it a gem is to simply scratch the surface what it delivers.

Speaking of social and the sharing happening online, Google introduced a Power Readers in Politics feature for users of its Google Reader RSS aggregator. It tracks things tossed into the Shared Items firehose by the presidential campaigns as well bloggers and journalists like Arianna Huffington and Patrick Ruffini.

We recently made a note of the fact that Obama-related content is shared far more often than anything to do with McCain. What do you think of that, huh? Maybe it’s got a teensy bit to do with that Obama iPhone application launched some weeks back. Then again, maybe not.

You’ve seen plenty of political ads in the last year or two. A great number of them are attack ads. So, in the spirit of negative politics, why not make your own? Attack Ad Generator makes it happen.

Fans of Al Gore, particularly younger folks, may also be fans of Current TV, the publicly-influenced cable network that features content produced by Joe Filmographer whose focus might be political, artistic, activist, or otherwise. Suffice it to say that Current TV will be involving itself closely with the social sphere on the Web on Election Day. Keep those eyes peeled!

Do you live in California? Do you plan to vote? Are you aware of Proposition 8? Well, in case you need to catch up on what it’s all about it, we gathered 10 resources intended to help folks learn more about the yes/no proposal.

In case all these attractions here didn’t quite hit the spot for you, perhaps the FCC vote over 700MHz white space that Google, Microsoft, Dell, HP and others are clamoring for will grab your attention. Why? Because it’s set to happen on Election Day. Good idea? Bad idea? You decide.

Finally, we get back to the basics and ask: are you registered? If so, you can still revisit some of the places we suggested for information about registration and preparing oneself for the big day. And if after consulting all of the abovementioned items, you’re still not so sure which way to lean when you step into the voting booth, take a peek at some of the websites highlighted recently for speedy education on the candidates and their positions. There’s tons of stuff to consider. Happy voting!

Source:Mashable!

Do you ever have the urge to explore new sites on the Web? Maybe you give the social search-discovery engine StumbleUpon a few minutes of your time every day, looking for interesting places to visit. Sort of like driving cross-country and seeing the sights.

If that sounds like you, perhaps you’d do well to pay Ziipa a visit. A so-called visual search engine for sites nested in the world of Web 2.0, Ziipa will interest virtually anyone who’s tired of the the same old, same old. Too much Facebook or Flickr in your life? You can quickly scour Ziipa for things that are less Top 40 and more indie rock in flavor.

There are a number of ways to search Ziipa for things you may not have heard of before or previously paid any attention to. There’s the requisite search bar at the top, for one. You can also take a look at the Top 10. You can take it page by page. Or you can busy yourself with the Tag cloud. We recommend the last option.

At times, Ziipa can be a little loose with how accurately a tag might fit one’s own description of one service or another, but it is largely on the mark. And so long as you’re into the idea of piloting your way around sites and services buried beneath industry mainstreamers, there’s a good chance you’ll be pleased with what you see. The variety of names is substantial in number, enough to satisfy most curious observers, and the presence of a front page screen shots for each domain listed will go far in giving you an easy peek at where it is you might want to visit.

It’s all very simple in design. Links to sites posted within Ziipa’s search results don’t lead directly to their respective domains, but to a profile page on Ziipa describing the site with options to share the pick via Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc., as well a space in which to publish comments. Altogether, the experience delivered by Ziipa is something that may be lost on people who are comfortable with the popular crowd of startups and “aging” sites. But the explorers among you will certainly appreciate what this place shines its light on.