lifestream posts

MySpace now lets you sync your Twitter updates

by Jay Hathaway Sep 21st 2009

With more social networks turning into lifestreaming platforms, it makes sense that we're seeing Twitter integration for a growing number of social sites and services. MySpace is the latest big player to get Twitter syncing, with both one-way and two-way options. MySpace may be showing up a little late to this party, though, with services like Facebook and AIM already able to feed into Twitter.

You can plug your accounts in using OAuth, and your posts from MySpace will show "from MySpace," just like any other Twitter client. Syncing also works with the mobile versions of both sites. Twitter might win bigger than MySpace, here. All MySpace gets is an attempt to keep up with Facebook and other competitors who have already embraced Twitter, while Twitter gets more exposure with the younger demographic that some say it's had trouble attracting.

Tags: lifestream, myspace, status, sync, twitter

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, AOL, iPhone, web 2.0, Microblogging

AIM for iPhone adds Lifestream Integration

by Nik Fletcher Sep 12th 2009

We've long been keeping track of AIM for iPhone (iTunes link) here at Download Squad: and today an all-new version has hit the App Store that adds the Lifestream features that are available via the Lifestream website. If you haven't tried the new features, Lifestream lets you add accounts from the likes of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Digg and YouTube - and any activity from those services appears for your perusal within the Lifestream.

This all-new 4.0.1 update allows you to view activity within the AIM application, leave comments on all updates as well as 'Like' AIM status updates. The application also lets you browse Flickr 'shares' directly within the application with options to save the image or open the Flickr page in Safari. Whilst not a deal-breaker, it'd also be nice to have the option to email links to Flickr photos.

AIM 4.0.1 is available on the App Store for $2.99, and the free version (which is advertising supported) with the same feature set is currently in review with Apple - we'll update this post when it goes live.

Disclosure: AIM is a service from AOL, this blog's parent company.

Tags: AIM, AOL, iPhone, Lifestream

Filed under: Social Software, AOL, Beta, web 2.0

AIM's latest beta lets you post to Facebook and Twitter

by Jay Hathaway Sep 8th 2009

AOL has been experimenting with Twitter and Facebook integration in AOL Instant Messenger for a while now, letting you read your updates from those services, along with other feeds, from the AIM client. In the latest beta version, integration is going a step further, allowing posting from AIM to Facebook or Twitter. The big jump from read-only to read/write is just the latest in a bunch update to AIM's social networking features. It's all part of AIM Lifestream, and you can add your accounts at AOL's Lifestream page.

A long time ago, Twitter used to support updates via IM, but that's fallen by the wayside and is no longer a priority, so it's good to see the idea being picked back up from AIM's end. AIM Lifestream has quietly added a bunch of other features this summer, too: you can now see whose buddy lists you're on, share your Diggs and Flickr photos, and sign up to receive Lifestream updates via SMS.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: aim, aol, beta, chat, facebook, lifestream, twitter

Filed under: Internet, Google, Open Source, Beta, web 2.0

Google devs chuck email, chat, lifestreaming into blender, create Wave

by Lee Mathews May 28th 2009

As if Google apps weren't useful enough already, a team of their developers have taken the wraps off a new project that will provide a major injection of realtime functionality.

Dubbed Wave, Google is positioning the new app as a kind conversation and collaboration system, a logical evolution of communication akin to the jump from mail to email, telephone to chat, or blogging to microblogging. They describe a wave as "equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You'll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch. Wave's power will come from its extensibility and ability to integrate with existing activity sources like GMail, Facebook, and Twitter.

Wave is built on HTML5 and the Google Web Toolkit. What's more, the team plans to make the source code powering Wave open source to encourage developer involvement in the project's continued growth and evolution. If you'd like to get involved, head over to the Wave Developer Blog for API information and a look at what you can build with Wave.

[via Official Google Blog ]

Tags: google-wave, lifestream, open-source, OSS, realtime

Filed under: Developer, Blogging, Productivity, Social Software

A different take on lifestreaming: SweetCron

by Jay Hathaway Jul 20th 2008

SweetCron is a bit of self-hosted lifestreaming software from Yongfook, the creator of opensourcefood. It's kind of like a hybrid of Tumblr and Friendfeed. While SweetCron hasn't officially been released yet, Yongfook is already using it on his own blog, so we have a pretty clear idea of what you can do with it: feed in photos, videos, status updates, bookmarks, etc, each with a distinct look, so a reader can distinguish content types at a glance.

If this sounds a bit like Tumblr, that's probably because part of it uses the Tumblr API. SweetCron is customizable and extensible via new PHP classes, though, and it lives on your own domain, so you have greater control over the data you're feeding into it. The basic theme can be seen on Yongfook's blog, where he's testing it out, but he says you'll be able to develop your own themes through a template editor. If you're interested in SweetCron, sign up to be notified when it launches.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Tags: blogging, lifestream, SweetCron, Tumblr, Yongfook

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

Organize and share your online content with SecondBrain

by Nancy Messieh Jun 24th 2008

SecondBrain is a personal aggregator that doesn't just aim to collect all your online content in one place - it helps you organize it. It's a bit del.icio.us, a bit FriendFeed and a bit Onaswarm, all rolled into one, with a new twist you're not going to find anywhere else.

You can import content from Twitter, del.icio.us, Blogger, Wordpress, Digg and StumbleUpon, and that's less than half the list. You can also get your content into SecondBrain by adding links directly to the site. With most other aggregators or social bookmarking sites, that's all you have to do. This is where SecondBrain gets interesting, because it allows you to organize your content into collections and share it with your people who follow your updates. SecondBrain's latest feature gives all users 1GB free storage.

It's still lacking certain features, the most significant one being the inability to export your links, but we've been told that's in the works.

SecondBrain appeals to that obsessive compulsive need to keep all your online content neatly tagged and filed away. And what better way to do this than with a service that allows you to share it with other like-minded people?

Tags: aggregator, bookmarking, import, lifestream, organization, secondbrain, social, socialbookmarking, storage

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

HelloTxt now lets you read social network status updates

by Brad Linder Jun 19th 2008

HelloTxt is a web service that lets you send out status updates to your contacts on a wide array of social networking and micro-blogging services. The site makes it easy to send identical updates to Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, Plaxo, Plurk, Tumblr, and other popular and not so popular services. But up until recently there was one major problem with HelloTxt: The communication was one way. You could send, but not receive status updates.

Now HelloTxt has added a new feature called Status Snap which lets you read updates from your contacts on supported networks. Right now, only Twitter and Facebook are supported, but HelloTxt plans to add more networks to Status Snap over time.

In order to enable Status Snap you need to login to your HelloTxt account and click the Status Snap boxes next to each network you want to enable the service for. HelloTxt has also added a lifestreaming feature that shows all of your recent activity on your main page.

Tags: facebook, hellotxt, lifestream, status-snap, tweet-this, twitter

Filed under: Business, Internet, web 2.0

Facebook expands mini-feed again, announces more changes

by Jay Hathaway May 26th 2008

The Facebook mini-feed continued its expansion on Friday, adding YouTube, StumbleUpon, Hulu, Pandora, Last.fm, Google Reader, and your personal blog to the list of sites that can share data to Facebook. The import feature already included Flickr, Picasa, Digg, Yelp and del.icio.us. What's Facebook's goal with all of this? Over at ReadWriteWeb, Josh Catone speculates that Facebook is going to become the operating system of Web 2.0, sucking up the best features of other innovative sites.

Josh's idea makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider that the new Facebook profile design, scheduled to launch shortly, won't let you hide your mini-feed when you're looking at your profile. Facebook says this doesn't matter, because hiding it for yourself never affected which stories others could see, and they want users to know what they're broadcasting. If it doesn't affect anything, why take away the choice to hide it?

We'll engage in a little speculation of our own: by expanding the amount of info in the mini feed, and giving users as much exposure to it as possible, Facebook increases the value of advertising in the mini feed. They haven't announced any formal plans along those lines, but their recent moves (think Facebook Chat) seem to be targeted at increasing the time users spend on the site, which in turn increases its value to potential buyers. Just some mini-food for thought.

Tags: business, Facebook, lifestream, web 2.0, Web2.0

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

Facebook adds outside info to news feeds, plus Lexicon trend graphs

by Brad Linder Apr 16th 2008

Facebook has rolled out two new features. The first is a Google Trends style tool called Lexicon that lets you graph popular keywords that have appeared on Facebook profiles, groups, and walls. The second is the addition of third party data to Facebook Mini-Feeds.

The graph feature is pretty much self explanatory. You enter a term, and Facebook will show you how frequently it pops up on the site. Enter two terms, separate by a comma, and you can compare their popularity. The Mini-Feed update is a little more interesting, but only a little. Users can now associate their Facebook accounts with Flickr, Picasa, Yelp, and del.icio.us so that pictures, reviews, and links they post to those sites will be added to their Facebook feeds.

The move seems designed to help Facebook compete with a number of new "lifestreaming" services like FriendFeed and Socialthing! which allow users to track updates from across a series of social networks. The difference between Facebook and those other sites is that FriendFeeed and Socialthing! let you track far more than 4 networks. Where's Twitter, Pownce, Digg, Reddit, and YouTube?

It should be interesting to see if Facebook fleshes out its lifestreaming features in the future. It would seem to be in the company's best interest to do so. Because if users decide that it's easier to keep track of their social networking data while visiting a 3rd party site like FriendFeed, that means they'll be spending less time at Facebook's page, which means less advertising revenue.

Tags: facebook, friendfeed, lexicon, lifestream, socialthing

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Web services

Engagd with an Attention Platform

by Chris Gilmer Jul 25th 2007

Information overload gets beat up with the help of Engagd. This converter allows developers of application and mashups to filter feeds and serve more personalized content.

Engagd has just broken into Alpha. This lifestream converter specially designed for developers merges clickstreams and other data forms together into an APML file. This file can then be used to rank and filter RSS feeds. It can also be used to submit information into other sites to create more personalized online information.

With many sites collecting data on users, Engagd will allow users to take control over their Attention Profiles. Through an Engagd API, developers will be able to add these Attention Profiles to applications and mashups through an API.

Tags: api, attention platform, AttentionPlatform, clickstream, engagd, lifestream, rss

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software

You too can be a nosy neighbor with iStalkr

by Chris Gilmer Apr 7th 2007

Who's up for a little stalking? Its ok, no Britney Spears stalking, just some RSS and ATOM feed stalking. iStalkr is out of beta and ready for users to create a world of spying and nosiness.

iStalkr is a web application that creates a "lifestream" that will track RSS and ATOM feeds from a variety of services that you might use throughout the day including Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter over a time line. From that point, you can choose to paste a time line of data into a website or blog to let people know what you are up to, or monitor other people's timelines to see what they have been up to.

It's a pretty cool application, but really doesn't serve any other purpose.. Sure its great to see how many times someone twitters, when they check out their news feeds, and how many times they Digg something throughout the day, but it's just another fluffy Web 2.0 gadget.

[via Profy]

Tags: atom, delicious, digg, flickr, google, istalkr, lifestream, rss, stalking, timeline, web 2, Web2

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