Internet Tech Boston

For those who are interested in micro-blogging and AIR apps, you’ve probably already installed both Twhirl for Twitter and more recently AlertThingy for FriendFeed.

AlertThingy was just released on April 13th by Howard Baines. Three days in, and I do enjoy it. But being a new “thingy,” it lacks some cooler features, including the ability to post directly to Twitter while posting to FriendFeed. Twhirl currently supports something similar – it allows posts to both Twitter and to Pownce.

With a new release of AlertThingy is coming soon, there’s a strong indication this one will come with Twitter support. One of the authors of AlertThingy is a Twitter user himself. In reply to a Tweet from me where I ask of any plans to have AlertThingy update Twitter, too?, Jeremy replies: you never know!

Now, check out his most recent “Tweet Testing!” . Testing a tweet from within AlertThingy perhaps? Twitter is reporting that his most recent Tweet was sent via web, but stay tuned for more details.

Update: Not only has AlertThingy now released support for Twitter, but Twitter has shot back by releasing support for FriendFeed.

This morning, I learned about BlogIt from a Michael Arrington post on Techcrunch, and had to try it out for myself first thing.

BlogIt is a Facebook app from Six Apart (i.e. Typepad) that allows a blog entry from directly within Facebook. This kind of feature is not necessarily new. YouTube and Digg, for example, both allow the ability for users to link their blog accounts directly to the service and post blog entries from within their own environment. I’ve used these features in the past and they’re OK at best. I find myself wondering what’s the benefit of creating a blog post inside Digg’s rinky-dink plain-text editor, when I could use my WordPress Rich Text Editor and just copy-n’-paste the link to the story I’ve recently Dugg.

BlogIt has a similar plain text editor. It allows HTML, if you’re so inclined. Other than dropping in my obligitory trackbacks to credit my sources, I don’t see myself getting too adventurous with HTML in the 15-row sized plain textarea box I’m provided here. I’m also interested to see what kind of self-promotion links or credits are appended to my post from Six Apart.

BlogIt’s differentiator is the ability to automatically alert other social media sites of posts created through BlogIt. It will update your Facebook status and your Twitter account. I already have my Twitter account updating my FriendFeed account. My Twitter account already updates my Facebook status. My FeedBurner account updates others when my blog is updated. Seems convoluted? Maybe. But now, quick blog posts I generate from BlogIt will be announced via Facebook Status, Facebook mini-feed, Twitter, FriendFeed, and opt-in emails from Feedburner. Not to mention anyone who’s subscribed directly to my blog’s RSS feed.

I’m looking forward to reviewing BlogIt’s potential impact on my readership, and will make sure to provide a follow-up comment after I’ve used it for some time.

Xobni is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that, in the first couple of days that I’ve used it, has changed the way I use my inbox. I send and receive a lot of email. A lot of email. Xobni’s toolbar appears on the right hand side of inbox and helps to manage all the email communications, file attachments, and contact info from each person who sends me email.

Xobni first debuted in September 2007, and was described in January 2008 as The Super Plugin For Outlook by TechCrunch’s Nick Gonzalez. Shortly thereafter, in February, ex-Yahoo Vice President Jeff Bonforte became CEO. The icing on the cake came when Bill Gates, speaking at the Microsoft Office Developer Conference in San Jose, Calif., called Xobni “the next generation of social networking.”

The accolades are worth it. As you move through your inbox, the Xobni toolbar quickly updates itself to show the details of the currently selected contact. There’s a video below that describes the main features, so I won’t explain them all in depth here. But one of the key features that the video leaves out is the “Schedule Time” feature. Simply select an email sent to you by someone you want to schedule time with. Click the “Schedule Time” link, and an email reply is automatically generated that describes your availability in plain English, for those who don’t have access to your Outlook Calendar. Here’s an example:

Dear Bob,

Here is my availability for the next few days. (All times are Eastern Daylight Time, GMT-04:00.)

Tue April 15, 10 to 12pm, 1 to 4pm
Wed April 16, 9 to 12pm, 1 to 4pm
Thu April 17, 9 to 10:30am, 1:30 to 3pm, 5 to 6pm
Fri April 18, 9 to 11am, 1 to 2pm, 3 to 4pm, 5 to 6pm

Best,
Matthew

That single feature along is worth its weight in gold. Not convinced? Here’s a nice in-depth intro video to this great, free (for now) service.

Surely, it won’t be long before Microsoft gobbles this company up. If the immediate, dramatic improvement to their product wasn’t enough, Xobni plans on introducing their service to other email platforms in 2008. Acquiring Xobni and rolling it into the Outlook product would be a great way to further differentiate from other email platforms.

Don’t have Outlook? Sorry, Xobni can’t help you right now. But if you use Gmail, try a similar service, Xoopit, instead!

Update: It’s confirmed that Microsoft has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Xobni for $20 million.

Update: Xobni Walks Away from the Microsoft Deal, citing concerns over the future of the Xobni team once it was integrated into the Microsoft organization. Additionally they feel like the future is to bring Xobni-technology to Yahoo, Gmail, and other top email platforms. It’s been well reported that Xobni is $5 million in. To me, it sounds like they blew a huge opportunity to make 4x in about 2 years. Time will tell . . .

BlogBurst.com is a blog-promotion service that promises to “increase your reach, visibility, and readership by making your blog visible to our network of leading publishers.” Sounds great, and on a whim, I put myself on the beta-site’s waiting list. Surely, my blog meets the “distinct, intelligent writing style” required to become part of the network. Wrong. Here’s the reply I got back:

Thank you for requesting an invitation to BlogBurst.

At this time your blog is not a good match for the BlogBurst network. A blog can be denied an invitation for many reasons, including quality as compared to other blogs in the network, needs of our current set of publishing partners, and topical focus.

Most often, a blog is not selected to join the network because the content does not meet the needs of our publishing partners, and is unlikely to be distributed by our current publishers.

Our network of publishing customers is quickly growing and we encourage you to check back with us occasionally. We expect for some blogs not invited at this time to be a part of the BlogBurst network in the future.

For more information on what we look for in blogs, we invite you to visit our blog guidelines at http://www.blogburst.com/blogger/guidelines.html.

Thank you for your interest in BlogBurst, and best wishes.

Best Regards,

The BlogBurst Team

If that isn’t a blow to my ego and online-cred, I’m not sure what is. I suppose I could take this defeat and pack it in, turn the whole site down and quietly drift off into online obscurity.

I don’t think so. My feedburner subscription tells me that there’s at least 2 people who regularly read this blog, not counting me or my mom. (Actually, my mom doesn’t read my blog). Take care, I would never abandon those 2 people to a life without my poignant thoughts on internet marketing!

On a more serious note, I think BlogBurst is doing something about the Cult of the Amateur that Andrew Keen discussed. They’re focusing on “real” bloggers and pairing them up with “real” publishers, in an attempt to increase the overall readability of the web. Rejecting my blog is probably a smart move on their part. As Groucho Marx once said, I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.