TwitterPeek is one of the gadgets which triggers the bitter one. TwitterPeek is World’s first mobile-sized Twitter dedicated gadget.

It does not need a special internet or Wi-Fi connection. It works on the cell phone towers and offers national coverage. The gadget lets you perform all the regular twitter specific activities you would otherwise perform on Twitter in a browser.

However there are a few things it does not let you do which makes this product less desirable among other thing. For example, you cannot have more than one Twitter accounts activated at a time, TwitterPeek does not come with a built-in browser which means all the browser related activities are not possible, etc..

I really fail to understand the gap this gadget is trying to fill or the issue it is trying to address. Twitter app is available for every smartphone and these apps do much more than what TwitterPeek offers. Even if someone who does not have a SmartPhone, with the dropping smartphone prices and service plans I think they are better off buying a smartphone than a gadget that does just one thing.

TwitterPeek sells for $99.99 with 6 months of free service after which users pay about $8 pm to use TwitterPeek or buy it for $199.99 for a lifetime free service.

A closer look at TwitterPeek

That said, I think the company has not invested much in innovating something new because I don’t see any difference between Pronto, Classic or TwitterPeek (hardware wise). So all that is different is an application otherwise everything else remains the same.

From that point of view, it’s a smart move to sell more gadgets by trying to capture the smartphone-less twitterholic audience.

The gadget is exclusively available on Amazon. Click here to buy TwitterPeek for $99.99 and here for $199.99.

Recent stats from Alexa show Orkut is not doing as well as it used to do about 6 months ago. Traffic Rank, Reach, PageViews, Time on Site, etc.. has witnessed a steady fall. So what the next best thing to do? Overhaul the existing service and features!

Without taking much away from Orkut which is the most popular social networking site in India and few other parts of the world I think Orkut will find it tough to keep its momentum going with other services (Twitter, Facebook) which are aggressively moving towards global domination in the social space.

The new Orkut offers features like “Super-Fast” Photo upload, Video chat, One-Stop Notification, Custom Profiles, Dynamic Friends list,  and other tweaks to make it a better social experience.

Currently, these features are only accessible by a selected few. If you are one of the eager socialites on you network who wants to show off with the new features, click here to sign-up for an invite or here to visit the new Orkut community page.

Watch the following video to see what Shashi and Poppy are excited about!

If you’ve logged into your Facebook account recently you might have seen a message like the one above. Facebook just announced its plans to offer Usernames to the users. Profile URL’s on Facebook have been very mechanical and non-user friendly so far but that’s about to change.

Users can now choose a username for themselves and access profiles by typing usernames in the address bar. This feature has been in the pipeline for a LONG time now but with the popularity of the usernames like the ones at Twitter (e.g. @tnerd) Facebook just couldn’t avoid it.

The option of registering these usernames will be available starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13 and they are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The following image shows what the profile URLs look like right now and what will they look like once you get a username.

To stop the immediate abuse of this service, Facebook is rightly restricting this option for the users who registered for a user profile after today at 3 p.m. and Facebook Pages created after 31st of May.

You can get your usernames on the following page www.facebook.com/username/ which is currently running a countdown.

So, be the first one to get your name and secure your identity on one of the most popular social networking sites!

Digg is currently working with Twhril to integrate the new short URL service for Twhril users. Twhril’s new version is expected to release sometime next week. I expect to see a lot of other services to add Digg’s short URL to their list for users to choose from.

In fact Stumbleupon is doing something similar in terms of ShortURL service on http://su.pr. I certainly expect them to have similar features which not only offer a good deal of features but also make it easier for the users to discover content.

Alright back to DiggBar.. I love the features and everything DiggBar offers. I spend quite sometime on Social content sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter, etc.. and tools such as this makes it easier to discover and share great content.

Watch the demo video of DiggBar by Kevin Rose..

DiggBar from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.

Though I am not a prolific Facebook user or a big Facebook fan I don’t really think Twitter can beat Facebook at what it’s doing, here is why… (follow @tnerd on Twitter)

To understand why Twitter cannot beat Facebook, one has to understand the target audience of Facebook and what Facebook offers that Twitter (does not) cannot.

Facebook is a whole package which offers Photo/Video sharing, Scraps, Pokes, Gifts, etc.. to keep in touch with friends, offers a decent level of privacy over your content and a lot of other tidbits of information on the your Facebook home page which encourages exchange of information with your contacts and keeps the communication going.

On the other hand Twitter does not offer any of these. Its “What are you doing?” messages could be a lot prettier than Facebook’s “What’s on your mind?” snippets but that ends there.

The way I look at it Facebook is a social networking platform where as Twitter is more of a Social Media tool than a Social Network platform.

Being different and offering varied services will work for Twitter and Facebook, it gives them enough room to grow in their respective targeted audience.

To understand which service will have an edge over the other in the long run its important to know what is Internet made of. Let’s look at what most of the people on the internet are looking for.

Alexa top 100 sites give a good picture of what people on the internet are most interested in and what services appeal to them the most.

I picked up the top 100 from Alexa and categorized just over 75% of the sites into different categories and rest 25% fall into News and Informational sites.

43% of the sites fall into the Top 3 categories, namely, Audio/Video Share, Porn and Portals. Social Networking falls into 5th place with 11% share.

Looking at the nature of the top 3 categories majority of the users are most likely to pick Facebook over Twitter as Facebook offers much more in terms of socializing and virtual communication interface which is more personalized.

Most people in top three categories are looking for much more than just reading someones updates, they are looking forward to make new contacts, not just contacts but also know the person on a higher level and not limit their conversation to “What are you doing” or “What’s on your mind”.

Bottom line.. in the current scenario Tech neutral users are most likely to choose Facebook as their mode of communication and social networking and users who are more tech savvy will go for Twitter that does not mean they will stop using Facebook. There will always be users who use both.

And don’t forget majority of the internet is made of Tech neutral users.

What do you think?

It’s not that I did not try it earlier but the latest release is much lighter and integrates good number of applications and hence worth a try. And Digsby did not disappoint me. One thing that I did not like about Digsby is all the things that it tries to install on my machine and some of them are known to be adwares like stuff from freeze.com. But if you are smart to avoid it you won’t be disappointed with the client per se.

Following are the services which are supported by Digsby:

Configuring it is as easy as it can get. Just add the accounts in the preferences window and you are good to go! Alright now for the best part. This application is absolutely free and is available for Windows, OSX and Linux!

Download Digsby Now!

Doof is beautifully designed site offering what it does best, Games! it offers a huge collection of Games which will keep you go on and on for hours. Games grow to a new number by the day as they allow developers to submit their games to Doof. If the game is approved and users like it then the developer is incentivesed (It’s not very clear how?).

The site not only offers great games but also a fully functional social networking portal where you can add friends, send messages, share pictures, sync albums with Facebook, Watch Videos, and a LOT more. You can make friends, interact with them at the same time play to your hearts content, it can’t get any better!

Users can also challenge their friends or other users for games and earn credits. These credits can either be earned or bought which can later be used for participating in Tournaments, etc..

Quick Suggestion to Doof:
Doof is already doing good however if they let users convert their earned "Doof credits" to dollars through PayPal or some other means they would see an exponential growth in the user base.

if you are found of online games, I certainly recommend our users to visit and experience the social way of playing games, and while you are at it don’t forget to try the "Cascade" game.

Have FUN!

The new trend in Social Networking space is all about finding a niche and having a reasonable registered users which will help you grow your community slow and steady. Keep it real, if you think you will be as big as MySpace, Orkut or Facebook then you are thinking too hard, don’t disappoint yourself.

Following is the list of Open Source Social Networking Softwares which will help you run your own Social Networking Website.

• Elgg.org

"Elgg is an open, flexible social application engine, designed to run at the heart of any socially-aware application. Building on Elgg is easy, and because the engine handles common web application and social functionality for you, you can concentrate on developing your idea."

• iSocial

"iSocial is a free social networking CMS software that allows you to create your own Friendster and Orkut like sites. Use bookmarks, dating and create groups with just one mouse click. Start your profitable social networking bussiness now!"

• Mahara

"Mahara is an open source e-portfolio, weblog, resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online learner communities. Mahara is designed to provide users with the tools to demonstrate their life-long learning, skills and development over time to selected audiences."

• The PeopleAggregator

"PeopleAggregator is an DLA (digital lifestyle aggregator) and is based upon the principle of open standards connecting social neworks and blogging systems together.  The PeopleAggregator’s social networking APIs enable any software product, service or web site to become ’social’ – to add the basic building blocks or social networking and blogging."

iTimes.com (Is a social networking site run by India Times) is based on The PeopleAggregator platform.

• Dolphin (My recommendation is on Dolphin. Its a wonderfully built application, very flexible and come for free)

" YouTube, MySpace, Odeo, Flickr, Match and Facebook – all in one, customizable and under your full control. You’re limited only by your imagination – not by software. Dolphin Smart Community Builder is a universal, free, open source software that allows you to build any kind of online community. With a huge variety of features & options, you can quickly develop your very unique and successful website."

Following is the list of Social Networking Services which will help you kickstart your own Social Networking Site in minutes without spending a dollar but the catch is, if you want to run this site for free you will have to share your ad revenue with the service. These services also offer Enterprise Solution for Social Networks

• KickApps

This site offers two options. 1) Run the application for absolutely free on their servers with your personalized domain and you get only one Ad spot on the page, and 2) You have the option of buying the entire Ad inventory for 100$ per 5000 page views.

One of the things they say is "Your success is Our Success".. hmmmm looking at the options above.. its hard to believe

"The KickApps hosted, white-label platform puts social media and online video functionality directly into the hands of every web publisher who aspires to be a media mogul and turns every web designer and developer into a social media rockstar! With KickApps, it’s now easier than ever for web publishers to leverage the power of social and rich media experiences on their websites to drive audience growth and engagement."

• OneSite (Among fully/partially paid Social Networking my recommendation is to go with OneSite. This recommendation is only based on the features and look and feel offered by OneSite.)

OneSite is better between the two. But its pricing is based around typical "Make Money" theory, at least they don’t claim "Your success is Our Success". If I can afford to spend about 200$ a month then I’d probably choose OneSite over KickApps.

"The OneSite Platform offers a complete community experience with Blogging, Photo and Video Sharing, Tagging, Rating, Flagging, Commenting, Built-in Messaging, and Groups built on patent-pending technology. We offer the most extensible, flexible, scalable, and customized solution in the marketplace. Our Widget and API libraries make it easy to integrate a OneSite community with existing web properties, search, registration, and authentication systems."

If you know of any other/better Open Source or partially paid Social Networking Softwares, do leave a comment.

It’s good to see how social networking sites learn from each other .

Site:Orkut.com

I logged into Orkut after a LONG time and noticed an announcement about the applications which said "India Dekha" and said "Add applications and customize your profile"

The concept of applications on social networking platform is not new, Facebook introduced this concept about a year ago. I think applications on Orkut will be more extensively used when compared to Facebook applications because of its huge user base and its target audience.

Orkut has become favorite pass time for college going and other individual in the same age group which is why these applications will have more users than applications on Facebook. if you are an Indian company then this is the right time to create your application to use the power of social media to your advantage.

India Dekha – Add Applications and Customize Your Profile