Qik: We talked a few weeks ago about lifecasting and tools such as Ustream that allow users to stream live videos from their computers, so the next logical step would be live streaming from a phone. Qik is a mobile video platform that can stream live video to the Internet right from a cell phone. [...]
Posterous: Posterous is a site that allows anyone to post any item of interest to the Web at any time, then provides the user with a custom URL that they may then share via their social networks. Acting as a sort of hybrid of a blog and Twitter, all a user has to do is [...]
Ning: Ning is a site that allows anyone to create a fully functional social network for as little as $20 per year. This is a great tool for people who share similar hobbies, interests or ideals to get together on the Web. With features such as groups, photos, chat, RSS feeds and forums, along with [...]
API: API (application programming interface) is an interface that allows one software application to interact with another. In social media, the API is what allows sites like Twitter to be used through desktop applications such as TweetDeck or mobile applications like UberTwitter. Shared APIs also allows users’ Twitter updates to display on their Facebook page, [...]
Lifecasting: One of the newest trends in social media is lifecasting. Lifecasting is defined as the continuous broadcast of a person’s life through digital media, specifically the Internet. Thanks to sites like Justin.tv and Ustream.tv, anyone with an Internet connection can do this. Users can choose whether or not to interact with their viewers, and [...]
Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing is a combination of the terms crowd and outsourcing. In social media, crowdsourcing is when someone uses his or her network to find a quick answer to a question. This can be anything from a reporter looking for source information to a traveler searching for a great restaurant in an unfamiliar city. This [...]
Meme: If the definition of an Internet meme seems ambiguous, it’s probably because it is. A meme is any idea or thing that can be spread from one person to another. On the Internet, this can be anything from a video or photo that has gone viral to a chain e-mail or those ubiquitous questionnaires [...]
Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is a way for users to manage and share bookmarks of websites on the Internet without being tied to one computer’s browser. Bookmarks can be tagged and sorted into categories, and descriptions can be added to the bookmarks to let others know what the bookmark contains. The most popular social bookmarking [...]
Trackback: A trackback on a blog is a notification that a particular entry has been linked to by another blog. This lets the original author know who is reading his or her post, adds legitimacy to the post by showing relevance, and provides readers with additional sources of information on that particular topic. Trackbacks generally [...]
Twitter Grader: We have discussed many ways to monitor how Twitter activity is spread and what impact it can have. But how does all of this reflects upon the user, and how does the average tweeter stack up against his peers? Twitter Grader uses a combination of traits to apply a grade of 1-100 to [...]