Blogging

Looking for a slick tool to easily build branded widgets? How about a social media browser that integrates social search and sharing across multiple sites? Maybe a cool application for online project management? A sophisticated yet free analytical tool for optimizing your CRM implementation? Low-cost video production? Social media analytics?

Find them all and others here in the first set of the best cool web tools for 2009.

Sprout Builder

In their own words, Sprout Builder is “a visual authoring studio that allows creative professionals to quickly and easily create branded, rich-media content and widgets.” It enables designers build anything from simple Flash banners to a sophisticated widgets with multiple media types, feeds and sharing options by dragging different media types onto a canvas and controlling effects. Pricing ranges widely from $19 per month for the individual option to $299 per month for the professional version, but there’s a 30-day trial for the curious to try this out.

Flock

Flock is a “social web browser” that integrates email, photos, video and social media sites into a single interface, while simplifying sharing and publishing. It runs on Windows, Mac or Linux and supports multiple webmail types (Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! Mail), social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), blogging platforms (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad), media sites (Flickr, YouTube) and more. It includes features like a People Sidebar for staying in touch with your social connections, an integrated RSS feed reader, blog editor and web clipboard. And it’s free.

Huddle

Huddle is an online project management, collaboration and file sharing tool along the lines of Basecamp, DeskAway and Projjex. It supports unlimited users, online chat, project alerts, a whiteboard feature, document management (approvals, workflow, audit trails), and collaborative document editing. Pricing ranges from a free, ad-supported version to $200/month for the enterprise package, with the most popular service level at $38 per month.

CRM Diagnostic

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have become ubiquitous, yet many—perhaps even most—implementations fail to take full advantage of the software’s capabilities in one or more areas. Most companies could be getting more benefit from their existing systems, but identifying the problem areas, and what needs to be done to improve use of the software, can involve a long and expensive consulting engagement. This free analysis tool from on-demand CRM consulting firm Demand Chain Systems short-circuits that process, helping to identify the most promising areas for improvement in just 40 minutes.

Jing

Jing lets you capture on-screen action or animate still images, add narration, and upload the final video or YouTube or other video-sharing sites or share by email. Available for Windows and Mac, Jing lets you add call-outs to screen captures or images, share your video or output it for further editing in other tools. There’s a free version for casual home users, or a Pro version that adds features like additional output options and webcam capture (Mac OS X Leopard only) available for just $14.95 per year.

Skimmer

Skimmer is a free Adobe AIR desktop application designed to organize your social media activities and make interaction easier by aggregating your friends’ feeds from Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger on one screen. It provides instant access to any video linked in a feed post, a slideshow view for Flickr photos or YouTube videos, and the ability to customize your profile and the appearance of your content.

TubeMogul

TubeMogul is a free online video tracking and analytics service that provides a single point for uploading to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. TubeMogul tracks viewing statistics far beyond “views,” including per-second audience dropoff, audience geography and more. According to their site, “TubeMogul’s analytic technology aggregates video-viewing data from multiple sources to give publishers an improved understanding of when, where and how often their videos are watched, track and compare what’s hot and what’s not, measure the impact of marketing campaigns, gather competitive intelligence, and share the data with colleagues or friends.” There are also fee-based versions that provide more advanced analytics and video promotion features.

Check whether the Twitter conversations about you are positive or negative with twendz by Advocable

Palin Ningthoujam reviews twendz, a free social media tracking and sentiment measurement tool that shows you who is talking about your product or brand (or any other topic) on social media sites, what’s being said, a keyword cloud of the terms most commonly used in the conversations, and the overall tone (negative, positive or neutral) of the conversations. While not as sophisticated as professional monitoring tools, twendz does provide a quick, easy and free snapshot of the content and sentiment around any topic of social media discussion.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2009 (S0 Far): AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 1

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): Cool Web Tools, Part 1

If you want a little more control or flexibility with your blogging, using a desktop blogging client is a good choice. Not to stereotype, but those creative blogging types usually come fitted with their own Macs. They want a blogging tool that will let them be who they are without forcing them into the constraints of templates and standard front ends.

Yet, of all the hip, savvy software preloaded onto Macs, none really include a true blogging client (iWeb doesn’t count).

If you crave a desktop blogging tool rather than a broswer-based interface to help you write your cool posts, CMSWire offers a few suggestions.

Excerpted from:
Top 5 Blogging Platforms for Macs

Social-networking savant Flock has announced a re-branded version of its browser aimed at fashionistas. At the very least, it’s aimed at people who like the color pink and lipstick marks on their advertising. Called Gloss, it’s a pink-and-purple themed edition of Flock 1.2 that comes with fashion-related feeds and bookmarks pre-loaded.

The Gloss rebuild of Flock shows the pinker side of browsing.

(Credit: Flock, Inc.)

The list of baked-in feeds for the Windows-only Gloss includes Cosmopolitan, TMZ, Glam.com, Popsugar, and These Boots Are Made for Stalking.

Gloss is getting pimped as a “fun” version of Flock, although I could’ve sworn that Flock received the same PR campaign comparing it to Firefox. Either way, it’s hard to argue with a browser that promotes itself as a place where, “Your friends are always there – just like celebrities in rehab.” It’s hard to argue, of course, because sometimes it’s better to just walk away. Slowly. Beyond having the topical feeds included and the new color scheme, there doesn’t seem to be much of a reason to get Gloss.

Flock itself has also received a couple of upgrades. The Flock 2 beta (download for Windows and Mac) goes up another point, incorporating the Firefox 3.0.1 security patch along with other bug-fixes. The Flock people are promising a lengthy beta cycle, so expect there to be at least one more update.

The official version of Flock (download for Windows and Mac) also gets a bump up, addressing bugs and security holes fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.16. Again, no major roadwork going on here, but it’s definitely a good idea to upgrade to ensure that old exploits don’t cause you grief.

Originally posted here:
Gloss: Flock goes fashionable

Sequels aren’t always as good as what comes before them (see Indiana Jones 2) but when it comes to technology and software, newer usually means better.

Flock, the self-proclaimed social browser is catching up with the times this week with a new version for brave beta testers that employs technology from the upcoming Firefox 3. Dubbed version 2.0, the new Flock is largely a behind-the-scenes operation, including such FF3 niceties as the controversial awesome bar, improved render speeds and the new bookmarking system, along with in-browser security notifications–which should keep the phishing sites at bay.

Flock's new people bar saves space by scaling up the services into scrollable feeds.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

That’s not to say Flock 2 is without its new polishes. For one, the media bar which sits atop your browser window and lets you browse and snag any media that’s on the page has been given a slight visual update. It’s still a film roll of sorts with a slew of clickable thumbnails. What’s new is that you can now save and bookmark media streams like you would Web pages. These items are saved alongside your bookmarks and can be called up independently of whether you’re on that site or not.

Flock devs have also re-designed the people toolbar to scale for more services. One of my initial criticisms with it, and on other similar services like Yoono is that it worked fine with five or six sites, but moving up into something like FriendFeed, which pulls in more than 40 services, people would just run out of room. Flock’s solution is to compartmentalize each feed into three different sections, which once you get the hang of it works like a multi-pane e-mail client.

Another noticeable improvement is the built-in feed reader. If you’re using that instead of something like Google Reader or a mail program, you previously had to re-start the browser to get the latest feeds. The new version includes a refresh button and adds time stamps so you can see how old each story is. I hope that in future iterations feeds will automatically refresh like they do on other readers, but the change is a huge step up from the old version.

We’ll be updating the Newbie’s guide when Flock 2.0 overtakes the current version (1.2) which should happen in the coming weeks.

Excerpted from:
Flock catches up with Firefox 3 in its sophomore release

Sequels aren’t always as good as what comes before them (see Indiana Jones 2) but when it comes to technology and software, newer usually means better.

Flock, the self-proclaimed social browser, is catching up with the times this week with a new version for brave Windows and Mac beta testers that employs technology from the upcoming Firefox 3. Dubbed version 2.0, the new Flock is largely a behind-the-scenes operation, including such FF3 niceties as the controversial “awesome bar”, improved render speeds, and the new bookmarking system, along with in-browser security notifications–which should keep the phishing sites at bay.

Flock's new people bar saves space by scaling up the services into scrollable feeds.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

That’s not to say Flock 2 is without its new polishes. For one, the media bar that sits atop your browser window and lets you browse and snag any media that’s on the page has been given a slight visual update. It’s still a film roll of sorts with a slew of clickable thumbnails. What’s new is that you can now save and bookmark media streams like you would Web pages. These items are saved alongside your bookmarks and can be called up, whether you’re on that site or not.

Flock devs have also redesigned the people toolbar to scale for more services. One of my initial criticisms with it, and on other similar services like Yoono, is that it worked fine with five or six sites, but moving up into something like FriendFeed, which pulls in more than 40 services, people would just run out of room. Flock’s solution is to compartmentalize each feed into three different sections, which–once you get the hang of it–works like a multi-pane e-mail client.

Another noticeable improvement is the built-in feed reader. If you’re using that instead of something like Google Reader or a mail program, you previously had to re-start the browser to get the latest feeds. The new version includes a refresh button and adds time stamps so you can see how old each story is. I hope that in future iterations feeds will automatically refresh like they do on other readers, but the change is a huge step up from the old version.

We’ll be updating the Newbie’s guide when Flock 2.0 overtakes the current version (1.2), which should happen in the coming weeks.

Excerpt from:
Flock catches up with Firefox 3 in sophomore release