TiddlyWiki comes in at the “not very many people know about it” department. Touted as a “reusable non-linear personal notebook”, TiddlyWiki is a quick and dirty, light-weight, and portable wiki application.

It’s always nice to be suprised by seemingly simple applications. TiddlyWiki has the basic features of modern Wikis: inline editing, markup formatting, ability to add HTML in entries, and easy save and load. The wiki aspect revolves around a tiddler, which is nothing more than a typical entry in any other wiki system. However, TiddlyWiki has so much AJAX embedded goodness that I don’t think you need to even do a single pageload except for the initial one.

When you click on a tiddler, it instantly pops up in the next available space in the main column. This is where the non-linear notebook part comes in–you can open up any number of tiddlers, which will all collate into one column. After leisurely perusing these, you can close any number of them easily.

Editing can be done inline with a single click of a button. Naturally, the edit box instantly pops up. Links from one tiddler to another are automatically parsed, based on the title of the tiddlers.

If you need a heavy-weight wiki application, TiddlyWiki might not be for you. But, if you just want a simple and easy to edit notebook to jot down ideas, TiddlyWiki beats out the competitors with its sheer speed.

So you may be wondering how TiddlyWiki installs. For many wiki systems, installation is a headache. When you click on the DownloadSoftware tiddly on the main page, you’ll be greeted with the fact that you’ve already downloaded the software. All of TiddlyWiki’s code is contained in the HTML file! You simply need to download an empty TiddlyWiki right to your computer, and you can instantly start editing. Now that’s what I call a painless install.

If you’re still not comfortable doing that, you could go for their hosted service at tiddlyspot.

While the majority of people would probably find this first mashup to be completely frivolous, I find it to be hilarious. Most CAPTCHA systems are very straight-forward and boring. In fact, BuzzShout has one of the most standard CAPTCHA forms you’ll see. Hotcaptcha incorporates Hot or Not to require the user to choose the hot women or men out of a series of nine pictures to figure out whether you are human or bot. What is most funny is that if you choose even one that isn’t hot (yes, you will know which ones they are) then you are instantly seen as a bot. Hotcaptcha has code available so anyone can add this CAPTCHA to their website to ensure only humans are visiting.

Another cool mashup, which was decided to be the best at MashupCamp, is WeatherBonk. This mashup puts weather information over the very popular Google maps. Some of the maps available are live weather updates, a fog overlay, weather along a specific travel route, and seasonal weather. They also provide code for you to add a miniature weather map for your own site. While the map with live weather updates works well and is very cool, the fog overlay didn’t seem to work at all. Also, if you are a golf fan as I am, check out GolfBonk which uses Google maps to show you the course with current and upcoming weather, as well as let you write notes about specific holes.

Source for this entry was Chris Law’s blog 1000 Flowers Bloom

There are already a bunch of sites that mashup video streaming giants like YouTube, everything from digg-like video ranking to automatic downloading. Another natural type of mashup is the video aggregator. YouTube does a good job of categorizing and tagging their videos already, creating online channels (although I hate to use that word in the context of the web). But of course, there will always be people who are unsatisfied, and attempt to make their own remix. Thus was born videws, which aggregates videos from YouTube and other video services to form their own mix of “cool videos and better news.”

Videws grabs news items from the AP newswire and other sources, and finds videos that are similar in nature to the article. I’m pretty sure it’s a simple keyword analysis, because more often than not, the videos are only slightly related. The interface is in a two-column format, which shows a YouTube video on the left, and a stream of news items and video links on the right.

The idea behind videws is that “news is dull without videos.” I really like the idea of aggregating video news clips, which ideally could be a video version of TechMeme. In its current state, videws just isn’t compelling enough for me to use, due mostly to its poor relevancy algorithm, and perhaps also to the relatively few user uploaded news items. The site is also rather slow.

As users upload more content to YouTube, which is serving upwards of 100 million videos a day, services like videws can really start leveraging the massive amount of content through aggregation. Bloggers are increasingly linking and embedding more videos from services like YouTube, and, tracking the popular video discussions with an aggregator like TechMeme will be valuable.

When I first saw dealspl.us I wasn’t able to read the URL as it was intended. I thought it said deal spl, which I took to possibly be an abbreviation for spell, and I surmised the .us simply meant they were based in America. Deal spell made no sense though, so I thought the spl was possibly some acronym that I had to figure out–some prices low. Maybe I couldn’t see that the URL spelled out deals plus because of some of the strange vanity plates we have out in California (10SNE1). I was not amused once I finally figured the URL out, and I was ultimately more critical of the site. Coincidentally, I’m not alone in my dislike of this trendy domain hacking.

dealspl.us went live a few days before dealplumber and after comparing both of these social/community driven shopping sites, I would place dealplumber as the current leader. While both have similar features, such as expiring soon coupons and most recent deals, I find the interface of dealplumber to be much more user friendly. dealspl.us’s staple is their digg style plus rating system, which I like, and I think it will be well received among users as their site grows. dealplumber seems to have a much more extensive database of deals and products, which is surprising because they were launched later dealspl.us.

With dealplumber, users can make money by using their merchant affiliate link while posting the URL for the deal and, when another user takes advantage of that deal, the poster will get the commission. Users can attain different levels based on their contribution in submitting deals and comments and receiving pluses for the deals they do submit. As Pete Cashmore points out, there are a lot of competitors in the social shopping space–RightCart, ShopWiki, Kaboodle, and Jellyfish just to name a few. The bottom line is that with so many competitors to choose from, we need your help to help us find the best social shopping site. So register or log on to BuzzShout and write your own reviews to help us cut through the hype!

Oh yeah, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, 10SNE1 is “Tennis Anyone?”.

A few weeks ago we wrote about TechCheatSheets as a great way for developers to have information at their finger tips to help ensure smooth coding sessions. Now we bring you Qunu, which uses XMPP based Jabber to help users get real-time answers to their most pressing tech questions. You can get an answer to a complex XHTML programming question or discover some cool hacks for Photoshop. Qunu is currently in alpha mode and has only been online for 40 days. Thanks to a little help from some Digg users they already have nearly 1,400 tech experts signed up to answer questions. To use Qunu you’ll have to register unless you’re already using Jabber, or, you can always sign up to offer your expertise. The best part for those with questions is that the service is free!

I don’t currently use Jabber so I registered for Qunu and found it to be painless since they only required me to make a username and password. However, as I attempted to find the answer to a Photoshop question, I was disappointed that the system moved very slowly and the links that were supposed to take me to an expert weren’t working. I tried a few hours later and had the same problems. Qunu cannot be blamed too much for the site problems since they’ve made it very clear that the site is still in alpha testing. I’m sure the technical issues will be fixed in time.

Qunu was started by South African Helmar Rudolph, Australian Murray Gray, and American developer Justin Kirby. Amazingly the team works virtually with each other across the three continents. They currently don’t have any way for the site to make money, and while they promise the main basic service will remain free, they state that they are actively looking for ways to monetize the business. One idea, similar to Google Answers, is to have people to post more complex specific questions and state a dollar amount that they are willing to pay for the answer. Once the usability of the site is improved, and the user base is established, then monetizing the site should be fairly easy. However, I would be concerned with some of the big online sites with their own proprietary IM systems simply copying the idea.

Everyday, we’re getting closer to the dream of the online OS. Like the days of the mainframe, the processing is increasingly pushed to the center. However, unlike those days, connectivity allows you to easily access your digital life from anywhere. At the rate of which online apps are being developed, the personal computer is converging to an online one. Preloadr, which recently launched, is another app to add to your online web applications toolbox. The service lets you instantly edit your Flickr photos online and in place.

Unlike rival PXN8, you won’t need to manually specify or upload photos. Preloadr logs into your Flickr account, and gives you full access to your photos. The idea is to cut out all the file renaming and uploading logistics by editing your photos in place and online, using Flickr as your hard drive.

The application is suprisingly feature-rich, providing visitors with a variety of image processing tools. You can do all the basic editing actions, like rotating, cropping, filtering, and resizing. Advanced users will be treated with features like layers, which allow you to manipulate multiple photos, each on a different layer. Preloadr even has histogram and luminosity functions.

Preloadr uses a combination of pop-up dialogs and graphical sliders for their interface, which is cleanly designed with the same look and feel as Flickr. The file menu up top lets you preview and save your edited photos. Remember, no more having to rename files!

PXN8 has some catching up to do, because Preloadr is head and shoulders above them, both on the feature set and the user interface.

As a Flickr user, I’ll definitely be considering Preloadr for image editing. The integration with Flickr is smooth, and should cut down on everyone’s photo editing time. I would imagine that for most broadband users, Preloadr has every tool needed for casual photos. As always, for serious photo editing, you should still stick with Photoshop. A nice feature for Preloadr to add is undo and non-destructive image editing. That way, users can always roll back to an older version of the image.

Check out this post written in the Dead 2.0 blog. While BuzzShout helps the consumer cut through the hype to find the best websites and applications for you, the Dead 2.0 post aims to help new “Web 2.0″ companies avoid believing their own hype. Some of their best advice:

• Don’t count on your social networking feature to carry the weight of your entire business.
• Find friends who don’t drink the cool-aid and get some genuine feedback. (Then you and your friends login to BuzzShout and share your feedback with all of us).
• Don’t affiliate yourself with Web 2.0 because the term will eventually die a horrific death 2.0. (Did you ever listen to Vanilla Ice or Milli Vanilli? Of course you didn’t…)

I hope whoever is behind Dead 2.0 is also using BuzzShout to help all of us cut through the hype. As we all know, the worst thing about all the emerging websites is finding the ones that are really the most useful/interesting/relevant/etc.

It appears that this is the recipe for success in online video blogs: hot looking girl + technology + video = traffic. Never a company to fall behind on the newest trends, Yahoo has released their video blog The 9. They scour the web daily for the most humorous, interesting, and outrageous videos and photos, and then deliver it in a monologue format (ie. hot girl talking). Is this something that Rocketboom needs to worry about?

Not hardly. The 9 sticks to relatively safe and popular media, with a monologue format that isn’t too far from what you would see on a topical news TV show. The subjects explored range from technology news, strange videos, and celebrity news. Due to the kind of mainstream traffic Yahoo gets, I’m sure throwing in celebrity news was an easy decision to easily win some loyal viewers.

The central idea is that their team of “monkeys” scours the net and the host, Maria Sansone, delivers the package. Users are also able to vote and rank the stories. The relevant links to the 9 videos are presented in a column to the right of the video. During the actual monologue, only segments of each video (or media) is shown, thus, urging the viewer to follow the links. Since Yahoo has a lot of bandwidth to spare (and, not to mention the heavy involvement of Pepsi as their sponsor), the monologue is delivered with pretty good video quality via a Flash interface, and is larger than other video blogs out there.

In the end, The 9 is more like a TV show than a video blog, which may be what Yahoo is going for anyway. It is, however, exposing the mainstream to watching a regularly updated online video segment everyday, which is a good thing for new media. But when it comes to niche, Rocketboom still has it. We’ll just have to see how the audience likes Joanne Colan, the new host.

Only in the online app world would people notice a change as slight as a right-click context menu. Keen users have pointed out that in the latest version bump of Google Spreadsheets, you’re finally able to do all the right-clicking you want, without having your pesky browser menu get in the way. This definitely doesn’t make Spreadsheets a killer app, but it is successful in taking a baby step towards bridging the gap between the online app world, and the desktop app world.

Another small improvement is an interface allowing for easier tweaking of borders, just like in Excel.

The real question is, where is Google going with all this? Are they planning on bringing a whole suite of office tools to loosen Microsoft’s grip on the industry? I would imagine, for now, that Google Spreadsheets would only appeal to non-power users (much like Gliffy).

I would love to hear about what people are doing right now with Google Spreadsheets. Are you using it as you would Excel? Or are you using it to simply jot down simple temporary notes? Do you ever use the collaborative features?

To be honest, I haven’t been overly excited about desktop apps that are appearing in browsers. I still find many of them to be too sluggish to use on a daily basis. This is why I was stunned by the fluid demo I received from Gliffy last night at Stirr. Gliffy is basically an online version of Visio. If you think that designing a diagram within a web browser would give you a headache, I implore you to try Gliffy. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to forget that you’re using an online app.

The theory goes that about 5% of Visio users are power users. The other 95% just need to draw a damn box and label it. This is exactly the crowd Gliffy is going after. Built on Flash and OpenLaszIo, Gliffy provides all the functionality that most Visio users need on a daily basis.

After a brief initial load time, Gliffy runs smoothly in the browser without any hiccups. All the graphics are vector based, which means you can scale and transform to your heart’s content. It also has all the basics of diagramming: symbols, text, colors, and connectors. You can even fire off keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-C for copy and Ctrl-V for paste, and Gliffy will respond just like any desktop app would.

A compelling feature is the ability to have a full revision history. Every time you save, Gliffy keeps track of all the changes, and, you can revisit any revision at any time. You can also add email addresses of people who you want to collaborate with, and, they will obtain access to the diagram.

After completing your diagram masterpiece, you can publish the diagram to the internet, which merely means you can link to a hosted image of your diagram at Gliffy. What’s nice about this is that the linked image is automatically updated whenever you save your diagram. No more editing diagrams in Visio, then renaming it, then uploading it to a server. Gliffy does this all automatically for you.

At this point, you must be asking, “What about portability? Am I stuck with using Gliffy forever?” Gliffy offers exporting to JPG, PNG, and SVG. If you need to further edit your diagram with a desktop program, make sure you export using SVG. I loaded the exported SVG file in Visio without a hitch:

Overall, Gliffy is definitely a polished product with a year of development underneath its belt. But, will people find it useful enough? I got a chance to speak with Clint Dickson, co-founder of Gliffy, and he said one of the early adopters of Gliffy are educators. Surprisingly enough, a tech-savvy teacher caught onto Gliffy, and saw it’s potential in the classroom where budget constraints prevent teachers from buying expensive diagramming tools like Visio. Free web services like Gliffy are providing cutting edge tools that allow students to learn and work on their projects not only at school, but at home too.

In addition to its free service, Gliffy plans on rolling out enterprise products with various levels of pricing.

Currently, Gliffy is seeing its user base steadily grow, with tons of new diagrams created each day. Look out for this one, because I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that Google is eyeing Gliffy for inclusion into their online office experience. Gliffy would make a perfect match alongside Writely and Spreadsheets.