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Filed under: Fun, Photo, Utilities, Web services, Freeware, Social Software, Web

Twitcaps - see what photos are being shared on Twitter

TwitcapsTwitter being the public communication platform that it is, where anybody is free to follow anybody else, leaves room for some interesting ways to use the information that people are passing around. For example, Twitcaps is a site that aggregates the links to photos that people post, and puts them together into a grid for easy browsing. You can view the pictures sorted by Newest Images or Most Popular.

Newest Images tends to be more interesting if you're looking to see a cross-section of what people are randomly posting links to, whereas Most Popular tends to be pictures of celebrities, since presumably these are more likely to be reposted by their fans.

When viewing the grid, you can mouse over any image to see the content of the tweet where it originated, and clicking on an image pops up a larger view. For the truly voyeuristic, there is an option to auto-refresh the page.

Of course, probably the most interesting function in Twitcaps is the ability to search for specific words, hashtags or users. The results may not always be what you're expecting, but it can be fun to see what comes up when you put a particular search term in.

Though I haven't come across any offensive material, keep in mind that the images displayed in Twitcap are random pictures being linked to by random people. Hey, it's the internet - browser beware.

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Identify for Firefox: stalking made easy, no Google required



Googling someone to get more information about them is a pretty common practice these days, whether you're an employer, a journalist, or just curious. A new Firefox plugin called Identify makes the task of information-gathering easier, by displaying information and links to someone's blogs and social profiles with just one keypress. From any page with a "rel=me" line -- that's most blogs, Twitter pages and other profiles -- hitting control-i on a Mac or alt-i on a PC will show you the info.

Identify is good for finding info on others -- including contact info like phone numbers and addresses, sometimes -- but you can also use it to see much information you're revealing. If you want to make sure you're easy to find and all of your profiles are linked, give it a spin and correct as needed. Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Flickr and LinkedIn are just some of the sites Identify searches for info.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Filed under: Internet, Photo, Utilities, Productivity, Web services, Search, web 2.0

Polar Rose plug-in: facial recognition in your browser?

queen barbara on polar rose
Though it is currently accessible only to a closed set of beta testers, it seems the 22 minds behind Polar Rose are trying to create a sort of "Google" for people pictures -- a system that is always indexing visual information. But that's only the beginning of the service.

Beta testers have recently been given access to an Internet Explorer and Firefox plug-in that will scan faces on a loaded web-page, placing an orange or red rose icon in the lower right-hand corner of every face on the page. The color of the icon depends on whether or not the system can stick a name to the face, and this is determined by whether or not the face has been registered with the system. Any unnamed faces can be registered with the system from there, though, don't expect miracles. The plug-in struggles with low-quality or poorly lit photos.

This is "cool," of course, and we tend to like advanced stuff like this even if it's not personally useful to us. But what happens if a web-user doesn't want his/her face indexed? As is often with new technology/services (stop-light cameras, Google, Facebook, RFID cards, etc.) this may one day begin to spark the paranoia of privacy rights activists -- assuming it gets big enough to get noticed by less nerdy common folk.

[via BLORGE]

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

Download Squad's Invite-a-palooza: Day 5

Today's Invite-a-palooza featured site just might reunite you with your long-lost love or your best friend from third grade (and if it does, we want to know about it). Spock, a new search service that's still under development, looks like it's shaping up to be a terrific way to search for people. The creators of this site want to be a human phone book of sorts by organizing information on, well, everyone. They're well on their way, too, since they've already indexed over one hundred million people.

Are you listed on Spock's Website? Right now, the only way to find out is by private invitation but, luckily, we've got some. If you're among first 200 people to leave us a note in the comment section, we'll send one your way (make sure to activate it if you get an email confirmation). Whether you snag an invitation or not, if you're a computer science engineer, you'll also want to check out the Spock Challenge for a chance to win $50,000.

If you know of a site you'd like us to consider for the Invite-a-palooza, drop us a note.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Office, Productivity, Web services, Social Software

Manage your life with Synapse

synapse life life managerSynapse is an online life manager. As of yet, there is no information as to whether this is a free web based application or not. Synapse is working up to their October 2006 release date, and it looks like it has some nice potential. The Synapse website lists off the main features that it will help users to manage their lives with. These include:
  • People - personal contact manager
  • Calendar - calendar and appointment tracker
  • Broadcast - send out email blasts to contact lists
  • Lists - daily to-do's
  • Ledger - financial tracker
  • Feeds - RSS feed reader
  • Favorites - bookmark list that is accessible from anywhere
  • Tags - easily find your favorite items and feeds
I personally can't wait to check out the release of Synapse. All of your most important daily items bundled together in one powerful tool.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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