Google Waveis a much hyped new Internet-based communications and collaboration platform. It was announcedat the end of May, released as a 'Preview' productshortly after tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_wave_use_cases_education.php';tweetmeme_source = 'rww';and 100,000 more invites were made availableat the end of September.Early users reported mixed feelings. But one month after Google Wave was opened to tens of thousands of people, how are people using it now? What use cases are being discovered? Let's start with the education sector. We'll explore other use cases in upcoming posts.SponsorWhat is Google Wave Again?A quick reminder of what Google Wave is. In a nutshell, Google Wave is a new form of real-time communications. Google describes itas "equal parts conversation and document." In our first 'hands-on' postat the beginning of June, we described it as "real-time email with a big dose of IM built-in" - although we noted that "this only describes a small part of what Wave can do." In a recent CNN profile, Wavecreators Lars and Jens Rasmussen described it as making email "collaborative and instant."Wave in ClassAfter searching some public 'waves,' we came across an educational wave. Entitled 'Wave in Class,' this wave was started by Loren Baum (a self-described "collaborative learning enthusiast" and graduate student at Ben Gurion University) and Sam Boland (a Politics student and "Tech Enthusiast" at Occidental College, Los Angeles). The wave was started to explore concepts like "Collaborative Note Taking"and "Wave as a Debate Host." Nearly 100 people are included in the wave, ranging from teachers to PhD students to IT professionals to high school students.This particular wave was framed at the start as being "a set of collaborative documents, supported by a chat."As a note-taking tool, Samuel Boland wrote that "there appears to be a concensus that this [Google Wave] will work as a note-taking tool, the only disagreement is over how to implement it." Options for note-taking include voluntary extra-curricular groups, rotating in-class groups and small in-class groups.A few users enthused later in the wave that "Google Wave combines a lot of the best features from different applications" - but with a real-time twist.It was noted that while Google Docs can be used to share notes and collaborate on assignments, with Google Wave students can collaborate in real-time. This could be important in education for things like notetaking, asking questions (a.k.a. a backchannel) and collaborative projects. Another feature of Wave that would be useful for education purposes, according to this 100-person wave, is the play-back ability - "so instructors can see exactly who did what, and see the progression of ideas."Will Wave Make Students Lazy?One concern that seemed to pop up several times in the wave was that Google Wave could make it too easy for lazy students to get by. As Justin Neitzey succinctly put it: "I don't think kids should be allowed piggy back of the work of others." This is a similar concern that some in the education system had with Wolfram Alpha, another innovative Web tool that is set to change the way education is delivered.Manny Guendulay responded that "reading those notes and participating in the collaboration of those notes hold totally different of levels of thinking." He argued that "the person simply reading the notes (passively learning) has no chance to perform at the same level as someone who helped collaborate (active learning) on those notes, or even watched and read along while they were being created." In other words, engaging with Google Wave - and the Web in general in fact - will lead to smarter, better performing students. That sounds reasonable to us, but time will tell for both Google Wave and Wolfram Alpha on that score.ConclusionOverall, it is clear that Google Wave has potential to be very useful in the education system, particularly as a real-time collaborative note-taking tool. Three students experimented with just that in a lecture; the resulting notes were said to be "more complete" than if Wave hadn't been used.If you're interested in exploring other education waves, check these out:Higher Ed Directory (meta)Software Roles in Education- a structured, goal driven exploration Wave for Notes- about note taking Student-side Class Management: a Wave templateDiscuss

  Connectify.meis a new service we just found out about. They've sussed out how to make any Windows 7 computer into a WiFi hotspot. Since we just installed Windows 7 on a spare laptop, we figured it was about time to make Windows do something cool, so we installed the app.We were quite literally up and running with other devices connected in five minutes. In fact, this post is being published right now on a Connectify.me-powered connection. Windows 7 users have got to try this app. You never know when you'll get to save the day by letting other users share your Internet connection.SponsorSpeaking of which, use cases we can think of right now run the gamut between Sticking It To The Man and Violating My ISP's TOS; nevertheless, it's an interesting, fun little hack that should've been done long ago.Installation is simple. Go to the website, click the big, shiny button, run the .exe file, follow the prompt. You'll then see a Connectify logo in the notification tray. It's party time! Choose a name, set up a password, and click the big, shiny button. Congratulations. You're now a software-based wireless router. It took about five very obvious clicks and was truly so easy a caveman could do it.This is almost as much fun as that MiFi we played witha while ago. The main difference is that the MiFi creates an Internet connection for 3-5 users using cellular networks, and Connectify allows multiple users to piggyback off a single connection. Oh, and the MiFi and similar devices cost a bit - or a lot - to buy and maintain, but Connectify is free to install and run.Connectify runs on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 r2. Why no other Windows OSes, you ask? "Connectify depends on improvements made in Windows 7 to operate," reads the site's FAQ. "Frankly, Windows 7 is such a big improvement that we suggest you're better off upgrading than waiting for us to get all this working on an older version of Windows."Three cheers for Windows for getting their act together on the OS front, and many thanks to Connectify for bringing us all n-for-the-price-of-1 WiFi!Discuss

  The question period after today's launch of Google's OneBox music search focused a great deal on the project delivering users with easy "legitimate music" versus other illegitimate sources. While discussion was centered around squashing the millions of illegal torrent files available for download, the truth is that a number of streaming music sites like Imeemhave worked hard to pen legitimate label deals. While some may wonder why iLikeand Lalawere chosen above others to benefit from the Google deal, many more are worried that the companies will be unable to offset label fees via premium subscriptions and advertising. SponsorSaid rap superstar Mos Def, "I personally wasn't happy tosee how the labels responded to Napster. I thought that was a missed opportunity with the fans. It seems to me that this project revisits this with a better perspective towards the fans- not from an adversarial point of view. " Still, many wonder whether this new fan-friendly discovery engine will bankrupt those footing the bill. While iLike likely has a huge amount of resources from MySpace, Lala is betting on the fact that users will use up their initial 25 song credits and take the plunge to premium. Last month MOG CEO David Hyman spoke to ReadWriteWeb about the launch of his subscription service. When asked if he would offer free listening, Hyman declined saying, "The problem with free services is that if too many people use them, you can't offset the licensing fees with ad revenue. There's only so much you can do with advertising, but the [pure] subscription model ensures that you're running something sustainable."In anticipation of a future European launch, one reporter suggested Spotifyas a legitimate source for streaming music to Google VP of Search Marissa Mayer. Said Mayer knowingly, "Your suggestion is duly noted." If Hyman is as confident in his hunch about freemium services as we think he is, he may even be hoping that Spotify cuts a European Google deal and burns through its cash before its US launch. It'll be interesting to see if Google will be the catalyst in swaying listeners to pay for their purchases or if streaming music startups will continue to tweak and revisit their monetization strategies. For complete launch details visit Frederic Lardinois' ReadWriteWeb coverage.Photo Credit: Ibrahim LujazDiscuss

  Today, Facebook has published a developer roadmapoutlinining upcoming relevant changes and a rough timeline for each.Changes include developer access to user emails, more prominent app displays on user profiles, all-new homepage dashboards for apps and games, and improvements to Open Graph and Analytics APIs. Facebook Connect libraries will be "smaller, clearer, and faster," and app policies and principles will be streamlined and uniformly enforced. Read on for details and screenshots of the new faces of Facebook apps.Sponsor"These updates are designed to simplify communication for users and developers, improve app discovery and engagement, and provide you with more comprehensive tools for building or expanding your business with Facebook," writes Facebook product head Ethan Beard on the Facebooks Developer blog post."Through these new APIs and tools, we are giving all developers building with Facebook and those in our largest application category - gaming - new ways to attract and engage users."Look &Feel ChangesIndeed, Facebook seems to regard gaming as its own monster - something that has taken off to the extent of taking over the platform, and not something that was necessarily anticipated. For that reason, we see of the most interesting changes as drawing a line in the sand between social games and "real" apps.In this bit of new hotness, you can see Apps displayed on the homepage left-hand menu for easier user discovery that will likely be less dependent on recommendations or invitations from one's Facebook friends. And Games are now just games, no longer grouped under the general apps umbrella.The Games Dashboard will also give developers a new communication channel, called "News", for sending personalized text updates to their users.One of the more interesting changes that will drive adoption and interaction virally is letting usersfeature their favorite apps on their home pages with bookmarks and new dashboards. "In addition, users will be able to better represent applications on their profile following short-term changes that include focusing profile integration on application tabs, as well as removing profile boxes, the info section of boxes, and the Boxes tab," writes Beard. Also, the apps that are bookmarked into a user's homepage menu will have counters, just like Facebook's own features, to prompt user actions.Apps are also getting a new canvas layout, "a format that increases brand association with users," writes Beard.Communication ChangesApp-user communication is rather busted in its current state. Beard acknowledges this fact and presents a preliminary solution. "Application communication in channels like notifications and requests aren't effectively serving their original purpose. There is a significant opportunity to improve the user experience and reduce spam by replacing them with better features."Moving forward, Facebook developers will also be able to interact with users in several different ways. First of all, user-user communication via the platform will be consolidated into streams and inboxes and will have new features to help users remain engaged with apps. User-to-user communications commonly in the notifications and requests channels will be moved to the inbox, as well.Also, developers will have access to user email addresses. Using the domain @facebookappmail.com, devs will be able to contact users via email through what Beard says will be a safe, secure channel for users.Developer Product ChangesBeard also highlighted two APIs set to change. The Open Graph API will allow any page on any website to integrate Facebook Page features. This means that users can become Facebook fans of any site or page on the Internet; that page would then appear on the user's profile and in Facebook search results; and the page will be able to publish stories to the user's stream. Although this change in itself doesn't open any Facebook data to the rest of the world, it does significantly increase the boundaries of the walled garden.Beard also writes that an improved Application Insights Page and new Analytics API are on the way. He promises improved tools, more robust data, and better management capabilities for apps and Facebook Connect-enabled websites.And speaking of Facebook Connect, those libraries are set to become smaller and faster. Other boons to devs include the public roadmap, a new websitefor developers, and Platform Live Status, "a central dashboard to view the health of various integration points, bugs, and Platform uptime as well as detail about upcoming changes and improvements to Platform." The developer blog and status feed will also be available via email subscriptions.Finally, Facebook's Developer Principles and Policieshave been streamlined and will now be applied across the platform. "In addition," Beard notes, "we're retiring the formerly optional Application Verification brand, submission process, fees and badge; the program's higher standards will be required and applications will be subject to review at any time."In terms of reducing the platform's complexity and increasing its power and speed, Beard concludes, "We are focused on designing Platform in a way that we can run core Facebook applications on the same set of APIs you're building on. If our technologies aren't fast, robust, and simple, we will feel the same pains that you do."What do our developer friends have to say about Facebook's proposed changes and attempts at communicating them? Is it helpful to have some idea of what will be happening to the platform, when changes will occur, and why Facebook is making those adjustments?Another question that interests us is that of cross-platform development: From what other companies would you also like to see developer roadmaps?Let us know your thoughts in the comments.Discuss

  Volunteer-run organizations often spend thousands of dollars on quarterly newsletters and direct mail solicitations. While the groups have the best of intentions, they often lack the in-house graphic designers and high-quality printers to actually produce these goods. Nevertheless, they almost always have blogs, websites and social media profiles for outreach purposes. In the past few months ReadWriteWeb has seen an influx of blog-to-newsletter media solutions. While many technologists have criticized print as a dead medium, blog-to-newsletter tools may be fantastic for advocates and service orgs. Below are a few companies to help get you started:SponsorMagCloud for Wikia: MagCloud has always given users a way to create custom magazines. In 2008, we covered MagCloud as an easy solution for self-publishing. The company's recent Wikia partnership lets you take your favorite Wikia site and create print pages directly from the admin panel. MagCloud also offers PDF uploads for those with other types of sites. Fast Pencil: Earlier this month we featured FastPencil, as a company with great publishing and formatting tools for novelists and writers. One of the features of this site is that you can import your blog and it will auto-populate pages of your book. This service would offer a quick integration your org's blog and it also offers basic formatting including clean font choices. Tabbloid: HP Labs' Tabbloid offers users a chance to select their favorite feeds, aggregate them as PDFs and schedule an email of the PDF. Organizations can add both their feeds as well as the feeds of related news sources. From here they can send their files to donors on a daily or weekly basis. In the past, ReadWriteWeb covered a number of tools for book publishing; however, these are also great for easy newsletter building.Blurband Luluallow users to upload files and create saddle-stitched magazine-style booklets. Discuss

  Those of us who make a living by making things happen (i.e. who hustle) know that it is a people game. All of the tools in the world won't beat the chemistry and aligned motivation that come from creative win/win deal-making. The tools are like a hammer for a carpenter. You have to have them, but carpenters are not defined by their tools. However, something substantively different is happening online at the tool level, thanks to social media.A good carpenter with a power drill will beat a good carpenter using muscle alone. A bad carpenter with a power drill is, of course, just a dangerous maniac! But we don't really have the equivalent of a power drill yet. We can see bits of it, but it is like having a drill, motor and battery that no one has put together. The pieces that make up this hustler's power drill are: email + CRM + LinkedIn + Twitter.Sponsor"Hi, I Just Sent You a Wave. Can You Check and Respond"Standards matter. In five years time, we may all be using Google Wave, but for now the Wave beta testers get voice mails, emails and other messages saying, "Hi, I just sent you a Wave. Can you check and respond?"That does not help productivity (understatement alert).Whatever is wrong with email, one thing about it is totally right. It is a standard that almost everyone uses.So, email is the drill. It is the basic component. Don't even think about working without it. You can use email to close a deal and to get a phone and/or face-to-face meeting.Keep a Good Record of Who Said What in Those EmailsMy personal CRM system of choice is Relenta, precisely because it is so email-centric. Many other people prefer to unlink these and use Gmail (or Outlook for the late adopters) and then integrate a separate CRM system. I still use Gmail as my back-up service.But CRM has lagged behind the social media wave. Most CRM systems do not record the conversations that take place outside of email, the ones that happen on LinkedIn, Twitter and Skype (or, for those who like it, Facebook: for what it's worth, I never caught the Facebook bug and see no reason to start using it now; I aim to be the last person on the planet notusing Facebook).The messaging fragmentation caused by these alternative proprietary messaging systems is a significant productivity drain. ("Heck, which system did I use to talk to Bill about the discount code?")Add LinkedIn for "Who Do I Know Who Can Connect Me To...?"LinkedIn serves two essential functions:It is a self-updating Rolodex. Once I have added someone on LinkedIn, I know I will have their updated contact details whenever they move to another job.It answers the age-old hustler's question, "Who do I know who can connect me to so-and-so?"But I do not view LinkedIn as a destination site. I avoid communicating via its messaging system whenever possible and I don't check it. I simply want access to the data: my updated contacts and their relationships in my power drill. That is not LinkedIn's business model. It has been accused of being a roach motel.So, it may end up disappointing me, and I may have to find a service that does something clever with my Gmail contacts file.What I want in my CRM system is something that shows:For individuals, what recent status updates have they sent out?Note, this is "Just-in-time," not real time. I do not want to be pinged every time every one of my contacts does something. I might look at that stream occasionally when I am in flow mode; but when I am in hustle mode, I don't want the distraction. But when I am about to email or call someone, it would be great to be able to scan recent updates about them. ("Hi, Bill. Congrats on doing [whatever cool thing Bill just did]. How does this impact what we are working on?") And I want this stream from whatever service the person actually uses: LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Services already exist that aggregate these, but that would be yet one more destination site. What I want is that stream integrated in my CRM.For companies, who else do I know at a certain company, and who else do I know who knows important people there?If I am pitching the CIO about something that relates to marketing automation , who do I know who knows the CMO?The strength of my relationship with second-degree contacts.LinkedIn is useful for second-degree contacts ("Who do I know who knows so-and-so?") Anything further out on the social graph is practically useless. But even second degree is useless if your LinkedIn contact database has been polluted by a lot of casual contacts. If I want connect to Fred, trying to do it via Bill is probably not worth it if I had only a 30-second email relationship with Bill 18 months ago. But my email and CRM systems know the strength of my relationships with contacts, or a reasonable estimation thereof, based on the frequency of my email interaction with them.Add Twitter for FlowHustle and flow. You need both. Hustle is directed, focused activity (e.g. contact so-and-so and get them to commit to doing x, y or z). Flow is a relaxed state of ambient awareness that alerts you to new opportunities. (You could also add "Create," giving you: Hustle, flow, create. In create mode, you "switch off all electronic devices." But that, as they say, is another story.)CRM and LinkedIn are about hustle. Twitter is about flow.I avoid using Twitter DM. Twitter is great for flow, but lousy for hustle. Twitter DM only adds to messaging fragmentation and has been polluted by spam. For now, @bernardlunn mode is useful, but methinks spammers will ruin that soon, too. But the basic Twitter service is perfect. I follow until I decide to unfollow. No one can spam that.It is a great research tool. Find someone who writes well on a subject, and then see who they follow. New services will take this basic idea to the next level. The one that might do this best is Aardvark.The integration we need is not another Twitter client for people who live in the Twitter flow. It is integration of this flow with the traditional hustle tools of email and CRM.Specifically, I want to see in my CRM system the Twitter flow of my contact, what they are writing about and who they are communicating with. If they have DM'ed me, I want to see that in my CRM.Discuss

  Google has just announced the launch of Google Music. This new service is powered by Lalaand MySpace's iLike. Other partners include Gracenote, iMeem, Pandoraand Rhapsody. Google has also partnered with the major music labels: EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music Groupand Warner Music. tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_music_launches.php';tweetmeme_source = 'rww';Through Lala and iLike, Google will also be able to feature music from a large number of independent labels. This new service will be available only in the US for now and will be integrated in the default search results page.SponsorRumorsabout the impending launch of Google's music initiative flared up last week when members of the press received invitations to an event in Los Angeles that was going to feature both iLike and Lala (not to mention "members of Linkin Park"). Users could already use the parameter "music:" to bring up Google's music search, though Google never promoted it, and this old feature didn't include the ability to stream music right on the page.What Will This New Feature Look Like?In this new implementation, users can't choose between the Lala or iLike widget. Instead, Google will randomly decide which widget a user sees. This gives Google the option to switch between services and to include other services in future as well.Buy Songs from Rhapsody - See Lyrics from GracenoteUnderneath the music onebox results, Google will feature links to its other partners, like Rhapsody and iMeem, where users will be able to purchase MP3s.Google's partnership with Gracenote also allows it to show lyrics in the search results now. As Marissa Mayer pointed out in today's announcement, finding lyrics is still very hard on Google. Now, users can type lyrics into the default search box and Google will return results from the music search feature, and users can play the song right on the search results page.Big Winners: Lala and MySpaceThe big winners here are obviously Lala and MySpace/iLike. For Lala, this has been an especially busy period. Just last week, Lala announced a partnership with Facebook. It now powers Facebook's music gifting service. iLike has a traditional streaming model. The company streams some song full length and some as 30-second samples. Users can buy MP3s from iLike for between $0.99 and $1.29. MySpace bought iLike earlier this year, and the widget on the Google search results page will be MySpace-branded.Lala's business model is more interesting. Users can stream every song on the service once for free. After that, customers can buy the right to stream it for $0.10 or buy the MP3 for $0.89. Users can also upload their own music library to Lala and then stream those songs freely over the Internet.How important this move is for the two streaming music services becomes clear when we look at the current traffic data for music-related searches on Google. Update: We just had a quick chat with Lala's CEO Geoff Ralston after the event. The Lala team is obviously very excited about the partnership with Google and as Ralston told us, the company worked with Google for quite a while to get this new feature up and running. According to Ralston, Lala's partners in the music industry were very supportive of the integration. We also asked him if he was worried that the new influx of traffic was going to bring Lala's servers down. Google, however, stress tested Lala's servers and couldn't bring the service down with up to 550 queries per second.What Does Google's Current Music Traffic Look Like?Hitwise's Heather Dougherty took a close lookat Google's music traffic earlier today. According to Hitwise's data, about 6% of last month's top 1000 search terms on Google were music-related. In total, Google sent about 1.48% of its traffic to music sites. The majority of these searches (15.32%) lead to a Wikipedia site, but almost 10% currently go to YouTube, 5.7% to Yahoo Music and 3% to MySpace.  Now that users can listen to music right from the search results page, these services - including Google's own YouTube - will likely see a drop in music-related traffic over the next few weeks. Discuss

  Starting today, social bookmarking service StumbleUpon is allowing users to beta test a shiny, happy redesign of their site.The new interface is streamlined and more social with an updated relationship system. A focus on consistency (e.g., limiting user control of visual elements) and removal of clutter (e.g., presenting tags in a drop-down menu rather than a cloud) characterize the design changes made. Also, a few tweaks to group sharing were made to help reduce share-spam.SponsorThe most significant UX changes have occured in the way friendships and subscriptions work on the site. Friends are now called Mutual Subscribers with mutual Direct-Sharecapabilities. According to the FAQ, "The Friends category... has a new shape in the new interface. Your friends... are now the equivalent of Stumblers that you are subscribed to and can mutually share sites with from your toolbar... Look for the 'two-way' icon under their avatars. If the icon is there, it means you can mutually share sites with each other."The "Favorites" tab has been renamed "All" and includes every site a user ever liked, including multimedia content. Similarly, the "What's New" page, which displays sites a user's friends and subscriptions reviewed, has been renamed "Recent Activity."In the new interface, shares are found in the main Discover tab and display the list of sites that were sent to a user by mutual subscribers with direct-share permission. Soon, the site will display sent as well as received shares.The once-retired Similarity Meter, a diagram showing a users' Favorites similarity with other users, is being resurrected. And by popular demand, group shares will no longer be available in bulk; users will have to select other users within groups to share items with them.Design changes that limit user choice in favor of overall site consistency are threefold: List view rather than a grid view is the default for all profiles. In contrast to the 22 background colors once available, a mere seven of the most popular color themes are now being offered for profile customization. And the visual editor has been scrapped. "Rest assured," the site reads, "we are still working on making sure all your past blog entries look good in the new interface. Some text customization will still be allowed."Our goal is not to limit your creativity, but to place emphasis on content and ensure a consistent user experience." An admirable aim, indeed; we think StumbleUpon is working in a good direction with these changes.We also admire the new drop-down menu for tags:Users are able to toggle back and forth between the beta redesign and the old site design over the next month. "To switch back to the old look," the site says, "simply click on the Beta link located on the main navbar (see image below) and on the following screen click the Leave Beta button. To return to the new interface, use the link Click here and try the new StumbleUpon! located at the top of all pages in the old view."Discuss

  YouTubehas begun warning users that they will soon be required to login with a Google account, instead of their old YouTube accounts. Just as people freaked out when Flickrchanged the locks on the doors and required a Yahoo account to get in, you can bet that this is going to make some people very angry.User generated content communities tend to have a very particular culture. If and when they get bought out, all kinds of issues arise around cultural differences and control. Seldom is this as clear as when old logins at a site are no longer accepted and users are required to get an account with the big powerful company that bought the community.Update:YouTube contacted us after publication to clarify that this change is only required of people who previously chose to associate an additional Google account with their existing YouTube account and have continued to sign in with their old YouTube username and password. Those users will now be able to use either their YouTube username or their Google username but will be required to use only their Google password to log in. This is the kind of thing that happens sometimes when companies have to merge associated accounts for a single service - but people who haven't tied a Google account to their YouTube account will see no change.We apologize for getting the story wrong.SponsorChris Messinacaught a screenshottoday of a logged-in page at YouTube with the message: "Please start signing in with your Google password from now on. Pretty soon we will be phasing out support for signing in with your old YouTube password." Pretty simple! We'll see if that warning ahead of time is helpful in calming the likely outrage by some users. YouTube is roughly four and a half years old - and it's been a Google property for three of those years! Maybe Google just now decided to keep it.Will this be an opportunity for users to vent about overbearing copyright controls on background music, the rapid growth of commercial content on the site or other ways things have changed from "the good old days?" Time will tell. Given the small number of users who can even remember the pre-Google days, this transition might not be such a big deal.See Also: Is YouTube The Next Google?Discuss

  Brizzlywants to be to microbloggingwhat Blogger.com was to bloggingfive years ago. Currently, Brizzly offers a user-friendly browser-based interface for Twitter and Facebook. The Facebook integration went live today tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/brizzly_adds_facebook.php';tweetmeme_source = 'rww';and more social media applications will be added as the product evolves. Brizzly was founded by Jason Shellen, one of the original developers of Blogger (acquired by Google in 2003). Currently Brizzly is in private beta, but ReadWriteWeb has scored 2000 invites for our readers to test it out! (see the bottom of this post for the code). SponsorFeatures, Including New Facebook SupportBrizzly is a self-described "social media reader." It's a browser-based service, like Blogger.com. Today Brizzly added Facebook as the second service it supports, after Twitter. Facebook users will be able to view and update their status, wall posts, comments and likes using Brizzly.Brizzly is similar to Twitter clients such as TweetDeck, Seesmic and PeopleBrowsr (not all of them currently support Facebook though). However power users won't see much reason to switch, as Brizzly doesn't have the advanced features of those products. And that's the point.The feature set of Brizzly aims to make microblogging a simple and seamless experience for users. For example instead of having to click links to view media such as photos and videos, Brizzly puts those items inline in the user's stream. Another example: Direct Messaging via Twitter has a UI (user interface) very similar to Instant Messaging, which many mainstream users will be familiar with. Brizzly in 2009 = Blogger in 2003Brizzly shares much of the same philosophy as Blogger. It's simple to use and aims to make microblogging easy to understand and use by a mainstream audience. This seems like a great strategy. Back in 2003, blogging was at a similar stage in its adoption as microblogging is today - passionately used by early Internet adopters, but not fully understood by a wider audience. The popular Twitter clients circa 2009 include TweetDeck, Seesmic and PeopleBrowsr. Those are great apps and no self-respecting Web geek would be caught without at least one of them. However it's unlikely that your brother or sister, let alone Mom or Pop, is using those products. Brizzly wants to be the service that introduces your family and friends to the world of microblogging and social media.Jason Shellen, who RWW readers may also recognize as a creator of Google Reader, was at The ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summitin October. Jolie O'Dell interviewed himabout about filtrationand discoveryon the real-time web. Shellen mentioned that mainstream users probably won't use hashtags to tag their tweets. He noted (at about the 3 minute mark inthe video) that "most people are not going to do that [hashtags], so it needs to evolve into a different type of filtration." One of Brizzly's goals is to make hashtags and other "geeky" social media concepts simple for mainstream users to understand.Less NoiseRegular people often struggle to see the value in Twitter and other social media apps. Web app developers need to find ways to convince people that behind the noiseof social media, there is tremendous value. So how does Brizzly compare to the now Facebook-owned FriendFeed, an aggregation service that early adopters love but most others think is information overload? I spoke to Jason Shellen at the RWW Summit about that. He told me that Brizzly won't blend services together like FriendFeed. It will keep them separate (Twitter, Facebook, other services that are added over time), in order to maintain simplicity.ConclusionAll in all, we're impressed by the vision of Brizzly and we think it has a good chance of hitting the same wide user base that Blogger.com so successfully tapped. It's fair to say that power users will probably be a little disappointed by Brizzly - but you're not the target audience.INVITE CODE:ReadWriteWeb readers can access the private beta of Brizzly by signing up using the code "rwwsentme" or clicking here. There are 2000 invites available.Discuss

  At the US Department of Defense, open source and proprietary software are now on equal footing. According to Defense Department guidance issued yesterday (PDF), open-source software (OSS) should be treated just like any other software product. The document also specifies some of the advantages of OSS for the Department of Defense (DoD). These include the ability to quickly alter the code as situations and missions change, the stability of the software because of the broad peer-review, as well as the absence of per-seat licensing costs.SponsorThe document also stresses that OSS is "particularly suitable for rapid prototyping and experimentation, where the ability to 'test drive' the software with minimal costs and administrative delays can be important."Clarifying OSS MisconceptionsThe DoD already uses some open-source products. This new memorandum is meant to provide guidance on the use of OSS and to clarify some misconceptions. According to the DoD, these misconceptions have hampered "effective DoD use and development of OSS."One of these misconceptions is that the DoD would have to distribute any changes made to the OSS code. In reality, most open-source licenses permit users to modify code for internal use and these organizations only have to make the changes public if they distribute the code outside of their organizations. It's good to see the government embrace open-source software - though some members of the open-source movement will feel a bit queasy about the DoD using their software. Just last week, the White House website becamea Drupalsite and hopefully other branches of government will follow the DoD's lead and embrace open source as a valid means of acquiring and developing software.DOD Open Source RulesDiscuss

  Android 2.0 just got its first killer app: Google Maps Navigation. Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 will be available for free and will be part of the default Google Maps app on Android 2.0 phones. The service offers all the features that users expect from a modern GPS app, including traffic data, 3D view and turn-by-turn voice guidance. Because it's connected to the Google cloud, the app can also display street view images, satellite imagery and real-time traffic data. Google also implemented a voice recognition feature.SponsorDisrupting the Mapping Industry One App at a TimeTop Features According to Google:The most recent map and business dataSearch in plain EnglishSearch by voiceTraffic viewSearch along routeSatellite viewStreet ViewTwo weeks ago, Google severed some of its ties with Tele Atlasin the US and started to display its own mapping data instead. Today's launch of the Maps Navigation app explains why Google decided to do this. Google can now display these maps without having to pay royalties to a third party and without having to negotiate a new contract with Tele Atlas. By making this a free product, Google is disrupting the mapping and GPS navigation market. Mapping companies like Tele Atlas or NAVTEQ make their money by licensing their data to GPS developers like TomTomor Navigon. Google, on the other hand, can give this product away for free.For now, the app will only be available on the Droid, but in a press conference earlier this morning, Google also said that these navigation capabilities would eventually come to other phones, including the iPhone. Discuss

  From the company called Peek, the makers of handheld devices dedicated to checking email on-the-go, there now comes another single-purpose gadget, this one for checking Twitter. The new TwitterPeek is a mobile device that lets you access the microblogging network from anywhere in the U.S. with no hefty data fees or contracts to sign, just as the company's original Peek devices let you do with email. The idea of a standalone Twitter handheld seems so far-fetched that we almost thought it was a joke - at least until we stumbled across this Amazon.com pagelisting the device for pre-order. Now the question is: who will buy this thing?SponsorPeek for Email Makes SenseTo some extent, we understand the appeal of the Peek handheld. Email is an essential part of doing business today but not everyone can afford a smartphone and the expensive monthly data plan required to use it. The Peek gives those sorts of penny-pinchers an alternative. For a one-time purchase price (starting at $19.99 on Amazon) and a reasonable monthly data fee of $15, Peek users are given a cheap way to read and respond to email on-the-go. Designed primarily for non-technical users, the Peek device is like a scaled-down Blackberry with less buttons, no microphone or speaker, no web browser or apps, and no scroll wheel - only a thumb wheel on the side. All it does is email, plain text email. No attachments, no formatting, no embedded graphics. Despite its overly simplistic nature, the Peek makes sense. It connects people to their personal or, more likely, their business email accounts for an affordable price - and that's something that serves a real need in a down economy such as this....but Peek for Twitter?However, the new TwitterPeek seems...well...sort of crazy, to be honest. Who's so addicted to Twitter that they're going to purchase this device instead of using Twitter's SMS service or just breaking down and buying a device capable of running apps or surfing the web? We know Twitter is a lot of fun, but is it really so essential that we need a standalone device? At this point, the company would have almost been better off launching a Facebook handheld than a Twitter device. Twitter just hasn't achieved the sort of "must-have" status that would make people want something like this. We would bet that the majority of Americans wouldn't have even heard of the social network if it weren't for its adoption by celebrities like Oprah, Shaq, Ashton, Demi, and others or its heavily promoted use by news networks like CNN. Still, even though Twitter is no longer a foreign word to Americans' ears, that doesn't mean that the masses are actually using it. Oh don't get us wrong - they try. But earlier this year, Nielsen reported that more than 60% of Twitter's first time users abandon the servicewithin a month of signing up. They just don't "get it" or see the need, they don't know how to find people to follow, and they certainly don't know how to get people to follow them back. Yet it's this very demographic - the somewhat non-technical mainstream audience - that Peek exclusively markets their products to. These people can't even figure out how to properly use Twitter, but they're going to buy a standalone Twitter handheld? We don't think so.Currently, Amazon lists two types of TwitterPeek devices: one with 6 months of service included for $99.95or one with lifetime service for $199.95. The devices come in gray or a very Twitter-like aqua.  Discuss

  New data released from Experian Hitwisereconfirms what we've known for some time: Facebookis killingthe other social networks. Nowhere is that more true than here in the U.S. where they found that the visits to the site have increased 194% from September of last year to September 2009. However, it's Twitterthat's seen the largest year-over-year increase in visits - during that sametime period, they're up 1170%. But one of the oddest findings being reported is how the social network known as Taggedis beating out Twitter for the number three spot in terms of visits.SponsorMySpace Declines, Facebook and Twitter Grow According to Experian, nearly 59% of all the social networking visits were visits to Facebook while only 30% were to MySpace - a 55% decrease in market share over the past year in terms of visits for the one-time king of social networks. Looking at just the year-over-year percent change may give you the impression that Twitter's popularity is through the roof. After all, they posted an increase of over 1000 percentage points. But the truth is, their percentage of visits still remains relatively low. Only 1.84% of visits to social networking sites in September were to Twitter, bringing them in at #4 on the chart. What? Tagged Beats Twitter?Facebook and MySpace beat Twitter out for the top two spots, but you may be surprised to see who came in at #3: Tagged.Yes, Tagged, the social networking site that's best known for getting busted in an email invite scamis beating out Twitter. Although we like to think that spammy marketing tactics don't pay off, it seems that for Tagged they have. Their aggressive methods in the past involved having new registrants add their contact lists to the service which Tagged then used to send out "invites" to everyone in the user's address book. The worst part is that the invites looked as if they came from the individual users when really, most were completely unaware anything had been sent out. Tagged has also been known to send out emails that force users to sign up for accounts in order to see shared photos from other users, even going so far as to guilt-trip recipients into signing up with messages that read: "If you don't click, [the person] may think you said no :(".As despicable as these tactics are, they've helped Tagged grow and remain profitable. ComScore reported the site had 32 million visitors in Aprilof this year, up from 14 million the prior year. And once there, the visitors are staying engaged, generating over 5 billion pageviews during that month. Believe it or not, the company is still growing according to the Hitwise data, albeit at a slower rate than it did a couple of years ago when it was adding more users per day than MySpace. In September of 2008, the site received 1.62% of social networking visits and this September, they received 2.38%. Although those numbers are small, they're still larger than Twitter's who came in at 0.15% last year and 1.84% this past month. Even worse, when calculating the time spent on the social networking sites, Tagged has shown an increase there as well. They're up from 23 minutes in September of 2008 to 25 minutes in September 2009. Meanwhile, Twitter is showing a decrease from 36 minutes to just under 16 minutes year-over-year, a loss of 56%. Although Hitwise focuses on U.S. traffic only, these findings go against everything we've heard about Twitter and its popularity - in fact, they seem to confirm that there may be more media hype surrounding the microblogging network than there is actual engagement among its users.It would be interesting to compare the number of users each network has with the visits, but that would be hard to do since Twitter refuses to release those sorts of statistics. Meanwhile, we're left wondering if Hitwise has had some sort of massive system glitch in their system or if we've just seen proof of how Twitter's supposed popularity is just all talk. Discuss