Skip to Content

Need a little good news today? We've got plenty!
AOL Tech

Posts with tag Digg

Filed under: News, web 2.0

Newsified gives your favorite social news sites a new look


Newsified is a simple, but brilliant, idea. Take your favorite social news sites, the ones you normally read on the web or through RSS, and lay them out like ... a newspaper. It's an old-school approach that actually proves really useful when it comes to deep sites like Metafilter and Digg. You only see a small percentage of the popular content on the front pages of these sites, but Newsified gives a broader view at a glance.

Newsified pages exist for 6 sites so far: Digg, Reddit, Metafilter, Mixx, Delicious and YouTube. It takes the most popular front-page content from those sites and puts it in a prominent position at the top of the page. Then, as you read down, you'll see the deeper content that you might have missed, laid out in convenient capsule form for your consumption. It's a quick, fun way to read news. In fact, I like the concept so much that I'm giving it a try as my homepage this week.

Filed under: Macintosh, Social Software, web 2.0

EventBox: all your social networks in one box (on your Mac)


EventBox is an OS X desktop app that lets you watch activity on the various social networking apps you use, from one convenient window. Right now, it supports Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Pownce, Reddit and rss feeds. You can view everything in your stream, including photos, from within EventBox.

If you're completely addicted to your information stream, and you want to see it all in one place, EventBox might be worth the $20 pricetag. The UI looks fantastic, and the app features the all-important Growl support. Apparently a HUD mode is coming soon (think Twitterrific), which will make the app's footprint on your screen smaller. You might not be interested in what EventBox has to offer if you're not very active on social networks, but if you're looking for this kind of app, EventBox gets it right.

Filed under: Internet, Yahoo!

Yahoo Buzz - now open to the rest of us

Yahoo Buzz
Yahoo Buzz, a Digg-type site where users can rank stories from a pre-approved set of publishers, is open to all users now. In the past only the invited few could post buzz-worthy content but now it's open to the rest of us.

Basically, you sign in with your Yahoo ID and "buzz up" stories that you like causing them to move up in ranking. Stories are ranked on what people are searching for on Yahoo and voting for on Buzz. There's not much more to explain. Stories that make it to the top of the list will be featured on the Yahoo homepage potentially driving serious traffic to the site.

You can submit stories or join the mailing list to find out when Yahoo will add new publishers to the network it pulls Buzz content from.

When I looked, top stories were about weight fluctuation in Hollywood stars and USA Gymnastics. Not the most newsworthy in my opinion but if you're tired of Digg you might enjoy it. Maybe it will improve once they add more publishers to the list of pre-approved sites.

[Via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

Atomkeep synchronizes your profile across social networks

AtomKeep
If you're a good, upstanding netizen, odds are you have accounts with half a dozen social networking service or more. You may only use one or two services, but if your friends or colleagues pressured you into signing up for LinkedIn, Plurk, or Pownce, you probably filled out an online profile before promptly forgetting about it. And now that you've moved, changed jobs, or gotten married, the profile is woefully out of date. Atomkeep can help.

Atomkeep lets you synchronize your profile information across more than 20 different services including Digg, YouTube, Blogger, Wordpress, Jobster, Facebook, and Twitter. You can choose from a huge list of category elements to fill out and when you hit the sync button Atomkeep will send that information to your social networks. You can sync with all of your networks at once or just select the ones you want to update from a list.

The coolest part of the service is the fact that you don't need to fill out your Atomkeep profile at all if you don't want to. It can import your profile from another service and merge it with your profile from other locations. So if your Facebook profile is already pretty complete but your Last.fm profile could use some work, Atomkeep can import the former and use the information to fill in the blanks on the latter.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Search

Polymeme is deep when Digg feels shallow

polymeme page
Some days it's all good and you're enjoying reading the news for the masses on Digg or Reddit. Other days you want something with a bit more substance. Maybe you're having dinner with your future in-laws and you need a good, solid, grown-up conversation starter. Check out Polymeme, which bills itself as the "experts' take on what's important on the web."

Polymeme tracks information in 20 areas, from Green & Energy to Books & Poetry with things like TV & Cinema and New Media thrown in for good measure. Top news stories are gathered from Polymeme's database of 25,000 blogs using algorithms that monitor the most viewed and linked to stories in each of the 20 categories.

By having the 20 different areas of news to monitor, Polymeme is able to find the hottest articles, blog posts and information from mainstream, alternative and citizen-driven media sources in each area instead of just the hottest news on the web as a whole. Site information calls it the "wisdom of clusters and not just the wisdom of crowds."

If you enjoy reading articles from places like Scientific American, MSNBC and Slate or you just need to step up your RSS feeds, Polymeme might be just what you're looking for.

[via Boing Boing]

Filed under: Fun, Internet

HD wallpaper from NerdBusiness

pixel monsterThat picture of Fluffy is never quite the same once you blow it up on your big, HD monitor. Fluffy looks less cute and much more pixilated than in real life. In fact, a lot of pictures and wallpapers just don't look the same.

The folks over at NerdBusiness have just the solution. They have assembled 218 HD wallpapers for your viewing pleasure. Everything from mint leaves to scenic photos to otherworldly Photoshop environs and Mario Party 8 shots. Our favorite? Digg-er from mandolux.com

Check it out and see what looks good on your big screen.

Filed under: Internet, Macintosh, Web services, Apple, iPhone, web 2.0

iPhone App Tracker - What's on Yours?

iPhone - What's on Yours?The Lockergnome brand and Chris Pirillo know their technology, and now they're opening the doors up to a new iPhone App tracking site just for you and run by you.

The idea is similar to Digg in that you can submit iPhone apps and people can vote them up or down, giving you a nice community snapshot of what app is performing, and what app isn't at any given time.

It also has implications for when new apps come out, and you want to be the first kid at school to get it.

Sure, you can read reviews in the Apple Store, but you don't get the full story like you do on a site with simplicity and ease of use.

It's rough around the edges but the idea seems clear. Submit, rate, and interact. But the difference here is that it's so granular and dedicated solely to iPhone Apps.

Chris gave us the early link to the Apple App Tracker too, and we'd like to see one for PC apps and maybe even Linux distributions. Since he can build communities, it'll be interesting to see how big of a community pops up around this new venture.

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0, Browsers

Yoono social browser plugin goes public, adds Firefox 3 support

Yoono
Social web browsing plugin Yoono has emerged from private beta. The new version still wears a beta label, but it's available to the public. Yoono is basically a utility that hangs out in the Firefox sidebar and gives you quick access to instant messenging services, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, and Piczo.

The public beta adds support for Firefox. It also packs a few new features:
  • Filter your friends activity by network, group, or names
  • Add FriendFeed and Flickr comments
  • Send Twitter direct messages and replies
  • Upload pictures to Facebook or poke friends
  • Browse Digg video
Yoono will also be adding Google Talk and MySpace soon. There does appear to be a bug that prevents Yoono from working properly on Firefox 3 in some cases. The problem seems to show up if you've installed some other browser plugins. Yoono is expected to release an updated version addressing this problem within the next few days.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Web services, web 2.0

Digg THIS Kevin Rose - Reddit goes completely open source

LOL Kevin RoseDigg has legions of followers. They're quite fanatical. The similar service Reddit doesn't have that type of following.

But how many of the Digg fantatics know how Digg works anyways? There's some type of "algorithm" that controls what hits the homepage. Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson have hinted to that it involves who is digging what, the rate at which the stories are dugg, and we think that it involves something with the space time continium. That and what side of the bed MC Hammer wakes up on.

But nobody really knows but Digg.

Today, the #1 competitor to Digg, Condé Nast's Reddit, says "Screw you guys, we're going transparent". That's not an actual quote, but the company's actions say that in a nutshell.

Condé Nast is opening up Reddit's codebase to developers, your moms and dads, your pet fish, and whoever else has a computing device hooked up to the interwebs.

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, web 2.0

Flock version 1.2 Flies the coop

FlockstarFlock, the "Social Web Browser" built on the same Mozilla engine as Firefox, has launched the latest stable version, 1.2. The beta has been available for a while now.

In this version, Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail integration. Digg and Pownce makes sense, but the AOL mail one didn't really excite us all that much.

It seems like Flock is stockpiling partners and features though and are putting together a very nice user experience "out of the box" that other browsers can't offer.

Firefox is perfect for the ubergeek that wants to install his or her own extensions, but for someone like our mothers or aunts who just want to try out this new fangled web thing, Flock is the answer.

Plus, the browser's blog editor is still the killerest app out there for any browser.

The knock on Flock has been stability which we haven't seen issues with on Windows or Mac, but the loadtime for first startup is a known issue that they're working on.

They recently won a Webby award for "Best in Social Networking" which is actually quite impressive considering that they were up against Facebook.

Go give Flock a shot and let us know what you think.

Do you want your web browsing experience to be social?

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

JS-Kit adds Digg-like features to your site with just a few lines of code

JS-Kit Navigator
JS-Kit provides some of the simplest tools around for adding threaded comments, post reviews, and polls to your web site. All you have to do is install two or three lines of code to your blog or web site template and JS-Kit will do the heavy lifting. On the downside, since the code basically calls up a JavaScript application from JS-Kit's servers, some portions of your site might load a little slowly, and if JS-Kit ever goes down, there goes your comment system.

Now JS-Kit has added a new Score tool that lets visitors to your site give content a thumbs up or down. You can also install a Navigator widget which you can then place in a prominent position on your site to let visitors find the most popular stories quickly.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Open Source, Canonical

Ubuntu Brainstorm: Vote on the Ubuntu features you'd like to see

Ubuntu Brainstorm
What's wrong with Ubuntu? No, that's not a rhetorical question. The developers behind the popular open-source Linux distribution are soliciting feedback using a Digg-like forum called Ubuntu Brainstorm. Anyone can submit an idea, and other users can vote a story up or down. The top suggestions are then showed on the front page of the site, bringing them more attention.

The concept is based on Dell's IdeaStorm web site, which the computer maker uses to solicit ideas. Right now, some of the top suggestions for Ubuntu are:
  • A better interface for managing network connections
  • Use less power
  • Combine the Preferences and Administration menus and condense some of the submenus
  • Let users know which application is using a volume that cannot be unmounted because it's in use
  • A prettier bootloader
  • Quicker boot speed
And the list goes on. What would you fix in Ubuntu if you had the chance?

[via Slashdot]

Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Digg Firefox Extension shows Digg stats for any page

Digg Firefox Extension
If you like the social bookmarking site Digg, but hate actually having to visit the web site to submit and vote on stories, you might want to check out Digg Firefox Extension. Like the Smart Digg Button, which we've previously covered, Digg Firefox Extension will let you see at a glance whether a page you're visiting has been submitted to diggs and how many votes it has received. If the page hasn't been submitted, you can click the button to submit it yourself.

But that's where the similarities end. While Smart Digg Button hangs out in your status bar, Digg Firefox Extension adds a toolbar to Firefox, which makes sense as it has a ton of submenus. For example, you can see the last 10 people who dugg the page you're visiting, and even read recent comments without clicking through to Digg's web site.

You can also forget about the page you're on altogether, and use the Firefox extension to see a list of recently popular, recently submitted, and hot stories. Or you can use the extension sort of like the StumbleUpon toolbar by clicking on "Random Story" to be taken to a random site submitted to Digg.

[via Digg]

Filed under: Internet, Yahoo!, Beta, web 2.0

Yahoo! Buzz: Digg clone now in beta

Yahoo BuzzAs we reported earlier, Yahoo! Buzz is now in public beta. Buzz is similar to Digg in that it lets users promote/demote ("Buzz") content to the top of the metaphoric hive. However, currently only publishers involved in the beta can have content submitted to the site, which makes Buzz (much) more restricted than Digg.

Yahoo says that they have "members of their team" choose promoted stories to appear on the Yahoo homepage, but they do not choose what appears on the Buzz site. Like Digg, Buzz uses an algorithm to determine a story's "Buzz Score" based on number of votes, number of times the story is shared, and the number of search results for the story's subject matter.

If you want to start Buzz-ing, you'll need a Yahoo account. Then, like Digg, click the voting button next to the story to promote a story. Oddly you can also submit stories directly to other social news sites (including Digg). You won't yet be able to view your voting history, and Buzz lacks "community features" like seeing what your friends have Buzz-ed. Oh, and you can't comment on stories on the Buzz site.

So if you want a featureless Digg clone with stories coming only from a specific set of sources, then try Buzz now! But hey, it's still in beta.

[Via PC Pro - Computer Buyer]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Yahoo!, Social Software, web 2.0

Rumor: Yahoo! to launch Digg competitor

Yahoo! Buzz
While Yahoo! fields merger/hostile takeover offers, the company's development team continues to push out new services. Today Yahoo! launched a retooled version of its video site. And Valleywag is reporting that the company will be launching a brand spanking new service on February 26th: A news and entertainment page featuring popular stories from around the web.

Yahoo! Buzz as it will reportedly be known will be something of a cross between Digg and Google Trends. Top stories will be chosen through a combination of user votes and popular search results.

But Digg has one thing that Yahoo! Buzz won't. At least not immediately. And that's a list of links from an unlimited number of web pages. Yahoo! Buzz will only feature links to about 100 web publishers at first. Eventually the company will reportedly open Buzz up to the Yahoo! Publisher Network, which means that anyone who sells Yahoo! ads on their site could be featured on Yahoo! Buzz.

While that might sound like a good reason for people to sign up for the publisher network, as incentive to get more social networking traffic, it also means that Yahoo! Buzz is by definition going to be more limited than Digg, StumbleUpon, or other social news and bookmarking sites. But this is all rumor and speculation at this point. It's possible Yahoo! Buzz won't be as limited as Valleywag suggests. Or maybe it's not even real.

If you go to buzz.yahoo.com today you'll find a page with top search results trends. But if Valleywag is correct, that site will be the future home of Yahoo! Buzz.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
SXSWi 2008 Schwag Unboxing
SXSWi 2008 Day 1
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

BloggingStocks Tech Coverage

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

BloggingStocks

Autoblog

Xbox 360 Fanboy

Engadget

WOW Insider

Switched.com

FanHouse