After a visit to the Ferret Rescue Mission this morning, causing an egregious injury to by toe, and prepping for an out-of-town meeting, I was thinking of not posting, but since I probably will not post tomorrow, I wanted to get this post I have been saving in reserve for just such an occasion.

Below are a number of social networking do-dads (sorry about the uber geek speak). Some of them are very kewl, while others might be but frankly I just don’t get them. I won’t tell you which I think are which, but below are the links.
-Slide.com

-MyBlogLog

-Tunefeed (Faces.com)

-Frappr

-Zingfu

-Zwinky

-Stickam

-Slideroll

-FilmLoop

-Snocap

-Meez

-RockYou

-Video Jookbox

-Streampad

-BunnyHeroLabs

-iBloks

-Sonific

-ChipIn

-Nakama

-Flixn

-MuveeMix

I’d love to hear which ones you think are the kewlest and which ones you just don’t get (maybe I’m the only one)!

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Previously I’d posted on the fact that I was going to give ClustrMaps a try. I’ve had it posted on the blog for almost three weeks now and I must say I really like it. While it is not as dynamic as a Frappr Map, it adds a whole level of kewlness due to its passive nature. The ClustrMap places a dot on the map based on the IP address of the visitor to your web site. The upside is the visitor does not have to take any additional steps to get onto the map. I say it is an upside but it does mean that there is no interactivity, pictures, or feedback available. Also, the maps are not necessarily accurate. Anyone using an anonymizing service such as Tor Onion will appear to be visiting from areas where they are not (hence DwM blog’s over representation in Germany).

Still, it has been really neat to see visitor(s) from India, South Africa, Eastern Australia, and Malaysia. I recommend it as a nice addition to your widget arsenal. Oh yeah, it’s free.

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A short time ago I posted on a kewl feature PodOmatic was offering that allowed you to see where see a map of where people were downloading based on their IP address. Well, ClustrMaps is offering something similar. This service maps site visitors based on IP address. Not as kewl, but for those of you who have a strong web presence, ClustrMaps would be a nice addition.

The service is free for those who get less than 2500 hits per day. After that they ask you to upgrade to the plus service. The only pricing listed on their site states that the upgrade is “less than $1/month”.

I am going to try it out on the blog and I will let you know how it goes.

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I came across a great little podcast player for your website. Now it’s very easy to have a streaming player on your site, to help all those who are a bit unsure about podcasts. You can tell people till you are blue in the face that they don’t need an iPod, but many still shy away from podcasts because they just don’t believe us. I’ve used other players in the past, but grew very tired of having to update the play list every time I added a new show. Then I found Feed Player from a fellow New England podcaster.

Simple to use, you go to their site and follow the directions. Then you cut and paste code onto your webpage, and you have a player that uses your RSS feed, can show your shownotes, and even detaches so that your listener can continue to listen and surf. How cool is that? (or as Michael would say, kewl)

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I saw an announcement that PodOmatic has a new nifty way to display/track listeners using IP tagging. The IP (simply the internet address of your computer’s network) is captured and then based on this information a pin is placed into a map. It appears similar to a Frappr Map, but is different in many ways. First, it requires no action on the part of your listener other than downloading a podcast. The pin shows the location of the downloader (approximate) and the number of times the ‘mapped’ subscriber has downloaded from you. This is a great tracking feature.

It had been quite a while since I’d taken a look at PodOmatic. I decided to take a fresh look. I liked a lot of what I saw. PodOmatic is a ‘full featured’ podcasting/vidcasting hosting service. It has a free and for-fee side to it. The free service provides:

* Podcast and Videocast support
* 500 MB of storage and 15 GB monthly downloads
* Listener call in line
* Podcast Templates
* Record video and audio online
* Viral marketing tools
* Podcast listener and download statistics

Considering this is a free service, this is nothing to sneeze at. Still, 15 gigs per month, while it seems like a lot can get real tight real fast! Take for example a 30 minute podcast done weekly. Let’s assume, therefor, you do four casts a month. That is 120 mb of storage. Not even close to the 500 alotted. So far, so good. The bandwidth is where things get tight. At 120mb per month, that means that there can only be 125 downoads per month (an average of 31.5 downloads per show). This would not fit my needs, but it is actually a good choice for a podcaster who wants to get his feet wet for a couple of months to see if they are going to stay with it. As long as you are using Feedburner for subscriptions, then the free PodOmatic service makes a ton of sense.

The for-fee service allows for more breathing room. For 9.95/mo you get:

* 2 GB of storage and 100 GB monthly downloads
* Advanced statistics by episode
* Advanced customization

Given our fictional 120mb of storage per month, you do not go over the allotted bandwidth until download number 834 (about 208 downloads per month). While this does provide more breathing room, I still like the freedom that unmetered bandwidth provides.

Still, I started this with how nice it is not have the IP tagged download map. I’m going to pass on it. But if you are looking for a new service and don’t feel the bandwidth restrictions will be a problem for you, then go for it - PodOmatic has some great features, the IP map being just one of the nifty goodies they offer.

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Now, this is a german language site, but I had to list it because it is a great idea. Even though I don’t understand a word of it, I found myself listening to the listed casts.

The concept behind the site it simple: Pass your mouse over an icon of a specific podcast and you will hear 11 seconds from the cast played. If you like what you hear, click on the icon and go to the podcasts homepage where you can subscribe to the cast.

I have no idea what the technology is behind the site. I recognize it as ajax (which to me is simply an alternative to comet).

Any chance we can do this at DwM?

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Tags: Widget, Kewl | 1 Comment »