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Feedhaus

Introducing the Feedhaus Newsroom

Team Feedhaus is very pleased to announce the launch of the Feedhaus Newsroom. Powered by feedhaus but integrated seamlessly with meebo, the newsroom gives you a forum to chat with your friends while constantly being updated with the latest news from the hottest tags on feedhaus.

You can recommend stories and tags to your chat buddies and they can do the same to you, which I’m sure will result in some lively discussions!

To access the newsroom, sign into meebo.com using your credentials from AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk or ICQ and then invite one of your buddies to chat. Witin the chat window, click on the rocket ship. Scroll down to “news & entertainment” and then click on “Feedhaus News.”

This will invite your chat buddy to the newsroom — which works even if your friend isn’t using meebo — enjoy!

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Feedhaus

My Love Affair with Instant Messaging

Do you love instant messaging? I do.

In fact, I remember the first time I used a chat room when my parents signed us up for AppleLink, a BBS (remember those?) that we could access using the modem on my first computer, the ill-fated special “Woz” edition Apple IIGS (remember THOSE?). The year was 1986 and I was in the 5th grade. In 1989, AppleLink was bought by a little-known company called Quantum (by a little-known person named Steve Case), who later rebranded the service as America Online. I remember when the service changed and how excited I was because it meant one thing — even more chat rooms!

In my high school and college days, I would telnet into academic Unix servers and talk to my friends on ytalk and later on PCs using AOL Instant messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger and GTalk. The only chat service I never got into was ICQ, although I did log in once in a blue moon for a special purpose chat on one topic or another.

So, long story short, I love chat rooms and the whole concept of chatting online. But, circa 2000 or so, all my friends were on different chat networks! At one point, I was running three chat clients on my machine — what a waste of resources. Enter Trillian (and Adium for the Mac, Gaim for Linux, etc.): now I could manage all my buddies in one place.

Then came that fateful day in 2004 when the client site I’ve been visiting since August of 2003 shut down all chat ports and banned Trillian from our desktops.

For the first time in my life, I was a man without a chat room.

Then, in 2005, a new Sequoia-baked web site went into alpha. I immediately jumped in and registered for this new chat room, called meebo, which offered the ability to combine all my buddies and chat across all the networks (like Trillian) but do so under the guise of a normal web site running on port 80. This of course allowed me to bypass the chat port and client software restrictions.

Fast forward to the end of 2007, and meebo now features rooms (how nostalgic) along with an open API, for which various companies have built a plethora of applications ranging from chess to speed dating to video chat.

So why did I just chronicle my love affair with chat in all of its gory detail? And no less, why did I do so on the Feedhaus blog?

Stay tuned, because tomorrow we’re going to announce a very cool new part of feedhaus that will truly change the way people consume news on the internet . . . and how they partake in discussions about current events.

Watch this space — and I promise — you won’t be disappointed!

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Feedhaus

feedhaus sponsors MashMeet Chicago

We’re pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring Chicago’s first MashMeet, an event designed to bring Chicago’s best Web 2.0 startups together for a night of social networking (the in-person variety, not the online kind).

Here are the details:

MashMeet Chicago

7:00 – 10:00 PM, November 29th, 2007
Fulton Lounge, 955 West Fulton Market, Chicago, IL

The event is open to all and no RSVP is required. Hope to see you there!

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Business Feedhaus

meebo launches games!

meebo_games.PNGmeebo, the multi-band, web-based instant messaging site, just rolled out a host of games that you can play with your IM buddies on any network: AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk or ICQ.

Their platform is open too, so, following in the footsteps of companies like Facebook, I expect to see developers flocking to the site to build applications targeting their million+ unique user per day audience.

meebo launched a handful of communication apps (including voice and video chat) a few weeks back when they first opened their API.

Of course feedhaus is also jumping on the embedded widget bandwagon, having released our widget for Facebook over a month ago. We’re planning a meebo widget launch one week from today and and an Open Social launch in Q1 of 2008.

Update: Michael Arrington just added his take on the meebo games launch over on Tech Crunch.

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Feedhaus

Introducing the feedhaus Facebook widget

We’re very happy to announce that Facebook has approved the feedhaus widget for inclusion in their application directory. Right now the widget is pretty limited — it just lets you add one of your tag clouds to your profile. In the future, we plan to support adding multiple tag clouds and sharing stories and tags with your Facebook friends. But for now, the widget is fun way to show your online compadres what your interests are in current events, celebrity gossip, tech/gadget news, etc.

Enjoy, but enjoy responsibly. Facebook can be addictive — so remember to do some live, in-person networking with your real friends and family members and try not to sink all your free time into online social networking. As a fellow Facebook addict, I implore you to do as I say, not as I do! 🙂

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Feedhaus

feedhaus sponsors MashMeet DC

We’re pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring DC’s first MashMeet, an event designed to bring DC’s best Web 2.0 startups together for a night of social networking (the in-person variety, not the online kind).

Here are the details:

MashMeet DC

7:00 – 10:00 PM, December 7th 2007

MEZÈ, 2437 18th St. NW, Washington, DC

The event is open to all and no RSVP is required. Hope to see you there!

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Feedhaus

Charles Knight’s Christmas List

feedhaus_public_alphaI’ve very pleased to announce that feedhaus was listed among the Top Five Web Applications that Charles Knight wants for Christmas. Actually, there are eight, but we’re still pleased that we made the list.

Charles runs a site called Alt Search Engines, which is part of the Read/WriteWeb blog network. In my own words, it’s a site that proves that there’s life after Google.

In their words:

“The unique approach of AltSearchEngines is to expand coverage of search engines to include the hundreds of alternative / niche search engines. While the editorial attitude will not be “anti-Google”, it will certainly be “pro-alternative search engines” — a showcase of cutting edge innovation. Our goal for AltSearchEngines is to make it the definitive destination for everything related to alternative search engines — over 1,000 of them!

Our motto: “The most wonderful search engines you’ve never seen.”

AltSearchEngines is edited by Charles Knight, a respected industry analyst and former SEO from Charlottesville, Virginia.”

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Business

Apple’s Subtle F.U. to Microsoft

pc_blue_screen_of_deathWe’ve come a long way since 1997, when Microsoft invested $150M in the beleaguered Apple, perhaps so that there would still be a platform on which to run Microsoft’s Office for the Mac.

Fast-forward ten years to 2007 — starting with the eye candy iMacs and then iPods in every shape, size and color, and now with the iPhone, Apple has risen from the ashes in perhaps what is the greatest corporate comeback of all time.

Now, with the release of OS X 10.5 (Leopard) last week, Apple has delivered a fine — albeit subtle — slap in the face to Microsoft. The icon for a PC server shows the PC displaying the infamous blue screen of death. As if the “I’m Mac/I’m PC” ads weren’t enough. . . .