The most influential women in Web 2.0 - Rashmi Sinha

The CEO and co-founder of SlideShare , Sinha was the first to create a site that allowed slides to be taken beyond limited office or educational use and shared online.

"As with video, where early entrepreneurs recognized that asynchronous sharing on the web could work, we realized with presentations that it was time to move beyond in-person presentations and that you could share slides on the web. Others could comment, favorite, download and build on this," she explains.

Sinha has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University. After graduation, she worked as a researcher at the Information School at UC Berkeley, focusing on how to optimize search engines and recommended systems (those 'recommended' titles that pop up on Amazon when you're looking for a book, for instance.)

She started her own user-experience consultancy - clients included eBay, iFilm, AAA and Blue Shield - which then eventually morphed into SlideShare.

If you're tech-oriented, and particularly if you're female, Web 2.0 is the best place to start out. "There are more entry points in the Web 2.0 world than in more hardcore tech companies like Intel. Web 2.0 is also the right mix of the social and the technical so that women can prosper. They are contributing in a more visible manner than in other tech fields."

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Xobni launches integration with Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, Skype, and Hoovers!

Xobni is one of the products who have got their launch strategy correct. They first launched as an outlook-only tool. Even spread the message in the press that they wanted to concentrate on the large outlook users population initially (the tool is free btw and is not associated with MS).

Now they are moving and spreading their wings to other areas. I am sure loyal outlook plugin users (like me and several colleagues in KPMG whom I have infested) will soon start using this tool to search their yahoo mail, facebook accounts and sundry. 

This is indeed a successful "strategy" of market entry which all product startups need to emulate.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brezina <Matt>
Date: Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 10:25 PM
Subject: Xobni launches integration with Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, Skype, and Hoovers!

Hi Xobnies,

We have great news from the Xobni headquarters today!

We are pleased to announce that starting today, Xobni users can now search their free Yahoo! Mail from inside the Xobni Outlook sidebar, view Facebook profile data, browse Hoover&rsquo;s company profiles, and instantly initiate Skype chats and calls.

The new version (1.6.3) is available for immediate download at http://www.xobni.com/download

Current Xobni users will be automatically updated over the next several weeks.  To force an upgrade immediately, please visit http://www.xobni.com/upgrade.php?version=5342

Details, screenshots, and a video of the new version can be found in our blog post at: http://www.xobni.com/blog/2008/11/19/xobni-brings-the-internet-into-outlook-br-4-ways-your-outlook-will-never-be-the-same/

As always, thanks for your support and we hope that Xobni is helping you love email again.

Matt Brezina
Co-founder, Xobni

http://www.LazyMaths.com

LazyMaths.com is the first and only website featuring a comprehensive collection of Speed Math shortcuts and Smart Math techniques. It offers users a unique and fun way to learn mental math, increase their confidence and zoom up their math score.

Their Story (source: their website)

We started LazyMaths.com, because we found many students struggling with Math problems that could be easily solved with simple shortcuts and techniques. We began by collecting well known as well as less known Math shortcuts and techniques that are simple and easy to use. Eventually, we built this website to share our collection. Even as you read this, we are continuously gathering more shortcuts and techniques to bring it to our user community.

Go Visit!! 

Remote education

http://www.sonhoz.com, 

A SAAS tool which enables educational institutes, staff augmentation companies, corporates, learning centers to create, conduct tests online for their students/prospective employees. 
Sure sonhoz can help conducting test, but what are the Salient Features:

• Charge the companies only for tests. Educational institutes can offer the courses online, manage their students for free.
  
• Have your own URL, Logo etc.
  
• Detailed analysis for students performance, not just the rank and marks. see sample at:http://docs.google.com/a/sonhoz.com/Doc?id=dhgvs9bn_5n3c468gc
  
• Have your own question bank.
  
• Different Test modes, public, private and invitation only
  
• Almost any aspect of test creation process can be configured.
  
• Different business models e.g. out sourced, hosted and in-house deployment.
  

Quotes

Click Here to visit Slideshare

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: innovation planning)

http://www.its-not-its.info

Go Figure!!

           

 

Ways websites use to get Profile pages filled...

Sourced from: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/eight_ways_to_get_users_to_fil.php
 

LinkedIn users are shown a progress bar and told that their profile is "X% completed." This is probably effective but some people tell us it makes them feel guilty.

Lijit does a great job - they just ask what your most common username is and then they check for public profiles with that username on a long list of different services. In just moments, with a handful of keystrokes, all kinds of info about you can be gathered together.

Strands, presents customers of Spanish bank BBVA with messages like the following: "Grocery spending: A married person spends 103% more on groceries than a single person. By the way, are you married orsingle?" That's interesting to know and would motivate me to answer the question with a click.

SocialMedian assigns a big picture of a famous (or infamous) person as each new user's avatar - something that must get a lot of new users to click the "change my photo" link. It's a witty idea and we wonder just how far it could be taken.

There's not a whole lot of excuses any more for asking users of your brand new website to fill in a whole lot of information about themselves. Nor is there for having super anemic user profiles, which leave new users totally uninspired to connect with each other. You need users connecting as quickly as possible in your apps and rich profiles really help.

Yahoo "Glue" Search

http://in.glue.yahoo.com 

Glue gives you the most comprehensive information available on the net in a well laid out page where you get information on all relevant and related aspects of what you're searching for. 

You might not get the Glue experience for all search terms, but you'll see more and more Glue pages being created everyday. Going forward, our aim is to provide more of the Glue experience in place of the classic search experience.

Crowdsourcing Political Manifesto

http://change.gov/

It's Your America: Share Your Ideas

The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story. Share your story and your ideas, and be part of bringing positive lasting change to this country.

THE AGENDA

1.  Revitalizing the Economy

2. Ending the War in Iraq

3. Providing Health Care for All

4. Protecting America

5. Renewing American Global Leadership

MORE ISSUES

Statup Identity Crisis

37signals guys nailed it. The quintessential problem all innovative startups face - describing what they do!

We've got a problem. We don't know how to describe to average civilians just what it is that 37signals does.

Like when we're at a cocktail party and someone asks, "What does 37signals do?" The answer typically starts with "a web software company…" and goes to something like "that helps small businesses organize information…" and ends with the other person snoring.

Interesting responses in the comments:

• Put together a piece like this maybe? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbxq0IDqD04
  
• I'd say, "We make software for small businesses that they use on the web instead of installing it on their own computers. "Just like you can use Gmail for email without installing Outlook on your computer, you can use our stuff to run your small business without installing anything on your computer."
• Let me try "if Steve Jobs was in the online apps market, his company would be 37signals"
  
• We create environments in which people can work together, online.
  
• 37Signals is a company dedicated to creating simple web software for maximum productivity in your personal life and business. Or I'd find a clever way to play off "great taste, less filling" or "no frills in this software"
  
• We make small business apps that work smarter, not harder. | We make software that works, so you can be more productive. | We make apps that keep it real.
• I gave up trying to explain to people what I do. I just answer: "I build the Internet". Those that don't care are satisfied with that answer, and it peaks their attention for a few minutes if they want to hear what I actually do.
  

And the best one!

• We're in the manufacturing business. ....... We manufacture extra time for people.
  

37s fans would love to go through ALL the comments in there ... 

Web3.0 soundbytes

Source: http://www.internetnews.com/webcontent/article.php/3778836

"We're all waiting for the killer app the Semantic Web is going to bring, but I don't think it's going to happen that way," Tom Tague of Thomson Reuters toldInternetNews.com. Rather than a "killer app," Tague expects Semantic Web technology will add a layer of functionality that will enrich the accessibility and relevancy of content. 

 

main causes of infoglut today is that we're "atomizing" content -- breaking it down into shorter forms like blog posts and Twitter feeds .... Web 3.0 is about having computers understand the content and provide users with only the most relevant information. 

 

Amiad Solomon, CEO of Peer39, a developer of Semantic advertising services, said advertising will also be key to driving Web 3.0's growth. While a search engine can match ads to keywords results in a search, Solomon said the promise of Web 3.0 is that computers can understand all the content in a document and match it with a truly relevant ad. For example, a nature article that includes mention of jaguars won't mistakenly place an ad for a Jaguar car if Web 3.0 is correctly implemented. 

 

"A badly targeted ad is bad for the user and it's a bad for the advertiser," he said. "Web 3.0 is the monetization of Web 2.0." 

 

Nick Grandy, CEO of Web 3.0 startup Wundrbar, said there is "a huge opportunity" with open APIs to make finding what you want simpler from any location. 

Relevant Links: http://www.wundrbar.com/

What's new in Gmail?

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html

If u have not yet started using these features ... go check 'em out

Google Calendar and Docs gadgets, A forgotten attachment detector, Advanced IMAP controls, Canned responses to save and send common replies automatically. To turn on these visit the Labs tab under Settings. Learn more

Link Credit: Shubham

Gmail on Android

Gmail is now available on the Android-powered phone - T-Mobile G1.

Emoticons – they're not just for chat anymore

Express yourself with emoticons from  to  or even . Click the  button when composing a message in "Rich formatting" mode, or choose the new emoticons tab in chat, and express yourself to your 's desire. Learn more

Gmail for mobile 2.0

Save multiple mobile drafts, compose and read recent email offline, use new shortcut keys and more. Download Gmail for mobile 2.0 for your BlackBerry or J2ME phone by going to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser.

India's SMS GupShup Has 3x The Usage Of Twitter And No Downtime

... Huh!! 

 

One day the GupShup spam control team noticed several messages that looked like gobbledygook to them. So they sent these suspected spammers account termination notices. They didn't expect the response: messages not just from those senders but from many others, pleading with them not to terminate the accounts. It turns out the messages were in a language called Hmar, only spoken by some 65,000 tribal people living in the hilly regions of India's northeast. There are now several Hmar groups on SMS GupShup; the tribal group sees this as a major communication channel. Being too small to attract mainstream media, the group also sees SMS GupShup as their main form of media and a way to save their language and culture from extinction as they assimilate into the Indian mainstream.

Read the complete story here. 

Homepage ho to aisa ho!!

http://www.travian.com

Very Clear Messages ... 

• Choose Country at the top  
  
• What Is Traivain - the most important piece of info - given prominence
• Player's Statistics - crowd puller stats
• About the Game section does not talk about rules etc - but about important points like
•  No Downloads
  
• Play with REAL players
• What you do in the game
• Screenshots section occupies the least focussed space on the screen - yet attracts attention due to embedded images 
• The sidebar is as to-the-point as necessary 

Microsoft Introduces Windows 7, Ending Vista Brand

Link Credit: Hemant 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/technology/business-computing/29soft.html?_r=2&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"We've done a lot of work around how you manage the windows, how you launch programs and how you manage the windows of the programs that you've launched," said Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft technologist who has led the development of the new version of Windows. "It's all about personalization and putting you in control of the PC, and that's a big initiative that we've had."

Mr. Sinofsky took the stage and issued an apology of sorts for the problems and frustrations associated with Windows Vista. He said the company had listened to and was responding to the feedback.

"We got feedback from reviews, from the press, a few bloggers here and there, oh, and some commercials," he said, with a nod to a lengthy Apple advertising campaign that has mercilessly poked fun at Microsoft's woes.