Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 12th September 2008
2 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Remember those early days of blogging when people used blogs like link dumps? I don’t, ’cause I wasn’t even in highschool yet. Anyway, I did read the Wikipedia pages about blogging, so that’s how I know. These days, link blogs aren’t really popular anymore. People don’t need guides anymore. They have each other and share links on social bookmarking, social news sites, Friendfeed, Google Reader, and Twitter. But what if you combine all blog posts from Twitter contacts? Do you have a re-invented link blog then?
Belgian blogger Maarten Schenk probably thinks so, as he has built Twiffid. This is a Twitter mash-up that generates a list of recently shared published posts on the sites your friends link to in their profile. Thus you can see what your Twitter friends are blogging about. Actually, it’s more like a tiny blogosphere considering it consists of just the writings of your friends…
When you load the list feed in your RSS reader, Twiffid actually is a handy tool. But when you decide to use the service on Twiffid.com, you’ll have a hard time. The thing is, the user interface is horrible. It looks like a website from the nineties, just like those old-fashioned link blogs. If Schenk hired a designer, the whole Twiffid experience would be so much better. I mean, the concept just begs for a cool lay-out.
[WebTipr: David Petherick]
Written on 5th September 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Now that Duncan Riley finally convinced me to give FriendFeed a serious try, I might as well share a new Friendfeed mash-up with you. It’s called FFholic and it shows the most liked entries, most liked videos, most commented entries, most commented videos, and also the most popular users on Friendfeed. Co-founder Arda Kutsal has sent me an email, explaining how they create these lists. Apparently they currently track over 100k profiles in real time, a number which is still growing.
While the list of top users shows the regular crowd (from Arrington to Le Meur and from Cashmore to Calacanis), the lists of most liked / commented entries are more interesting. Will this become another frontpage to strive for?
The most liked entries are mostly fun pics, I couldn’t find any serious news (something you do stumble upon on digg). The most commented entries though, give an more interesting insight in the social web. The list gives a good overview of what causes keep people (or: the early adopters) busy. Some examples:
The last mention is the most popular, and in Arabic Persian. That’s no coincidence, as a lot of the most liked/ commented entries turn out be written in Persian. So there are at least three possible reasons for his. One, of those 100k profiles FFholic is already tracking, the majority is Persian-speaking. Two, there’s actually just a large number of Persian-speaking people who are on Friendfeed. Or it’s a cultural thing and people from Iran like to discuss Friendfeed entries more.
Written on 13th June 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Would you like to know where to see your favorite artist this summer? Head over to The Last(.fm) Music Map, a – good guess – Last.fm/ Google Maps mash-up by Italian webdeveloper Michele Marcucci. The Music Map imports concert data from Last.fm and shows it on a Google map of the world. The site also showcases similar artists to the one you were searching for. And guess what, I’ve already bought a ticket via this übercool mash-up
My hero used to be Lenny Kravitz. Till my sixteenth I used to buy every album the man released. One minor detail though, I’d never seen him on stage. Well, this is gonna change as I’ve found out via Music Map that the 44-year old rocker will perform in Holland on June 28th.
Though I’m happy with my concert ticket for mr. Kravitz, I’m pretty sure this will be my last visit to Music Map. There’s nothing that stimulates me to come back. So an useful contribution the site would be a ‘keep me up to date’ option. Like a RSS feed or weekly newsletter. Otherwise I’ll just browse to the events section of Last.fm.
By the way, checking out where your music hero is playing is not the only interesting aspect of the Music Map, as you can also tell how hectic it must be to be a rock star. A map like this makes you realize that these guys are flying some miles. I guess I’ll stick to blogging…
Written on 26th May 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although these days nobody would associate the word “blast” with Twitter, Tweet Cube uses it in its service description. It’s actually kind of charming, while the whole geek world seems to be missing sleep over their Twitter worries, developers like Anthony Feint keep improving the microblogging service by building mash-ups.
So this mash-up is entering a Twitter mash-up battle, as there are already some file sharing services like Twit+ and Twittershare. Moreover, many services have Twitter integration. So instead of using a file sharing tool for images, I could just press the “Twitter it” button in Skitch.
Tweet Cube seems to have two important assets that could help in this heated clash of file sharing apps. Firstly, they really have the Twitter look and feel going on with the italic fonts, cuddly clouds and soft-toned colors. Secondly, it’s as easy as it can possibly get. Upload a file, add a message and.., click. There it is.
For now, there’s a 10mb size limit and files will be deleted after 30 days. Yet the arrival of some sponsors might change that. They should, since although you don’t look back when using Twitter, it can always come in useful to have an archive of your shared files.
Written on 2nd May 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Sometimes you just need a break. So do I. Then I either persuade a colleague to play some soccer in the hallway, or press the Stumble button. This afternoon I chose the latter and ended up at TwittEarth, a rather smashing visualization of the Twitter public timeline.
It’s a mash-up by Digitas France SA, who created this Twittearth for fun. Although I don’t question their motives, creating a Twitter mash-up seems like the perfect free publicity PR tool these days.
Just ask somebody to develop a 3D engine (Papervision), use an API for the geolocalization service (Yahoo!) and find some fancy icons (Fasticon). The result? Some heavy coverage on world’s largest tech blogs:
Keep that in mind, all you web design agencies out there. Don’t spend your money on ads, just go creative with Twitter and let the blogosphere do the rest.
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