Weekend Web 2.0 roundup for December 30th

by Chris Gilmer Dec 30th 2007

WooMe
It was only a matter of time before speed dating entered the Web2 online space. This service backed by the founder of Skype takes the crazy world of speed dating and wraps it up online in a way to meet new users, live. Hook up a mic and web cam and join "sessions" that are based on topics that you enjoy.

DecentURL
Similar to the famous tinyurl, and snipurl, DecentURL makes the standard ugly number letter shortened URL's a little prettier. Paste in the ugly long URL, and add a title that makes your new URL easier to remember,.
In this demonstration, our URL was:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/web-2-0/
We chose web2 as the title, and this is what we were given:
http://decenturl.com/downloadsquad/web2

Hi Everywhere!
Know the area in which you live pretty well? Are you good at showing people around? Why not volunteer as a local tour guide? The social networking site Hi Everywhere! hooks up travelers with volunteer guides. There are currently under 100 users, and they haven't managed to hook up too many travelers as of yet. For a site that relies on members, they have a few more to attract before this can be a tourists haven.

Onaswarm
Onaswarm is your lifestream. This site gathers all of your web content, videos, networks, photos and molds them into a single web hub where friends can check out what you are up to. You can also make widgets that will display the data on other webpages, and tags can be implemented to make finding content a little easier.

trutap
Trutap allows users to take all of their social tools wherever they go. The global messaging service hooks up IM, Flickr, Blogger, Facebook and MySpace accounts and inserts them into one convenient handheld application. The beta download currently supports select popular phones made by LG, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony Erickson.

Tags: decenturl, hieverywhere, onaswarm, trutap, web2, web2.0, woome

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters