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GroundMap Aggregates Social Media Streams via GeoTagging

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The GroundMap Application Demo from Eric Bieller on Vimeo.

We’ve seen various startups tried aggregating various social media streams such as tweets and Facebook updates. But none of them have utilized the power of geotagging. Until now, with new startup GroundMap and its new social media platform.

The idea is pretty simple and yet could be powerful. GroundMap lets you bucket geotagged social media streams and by that we mean all types of streams and not just tweets or reviews like what others are doing.

So, GroundMap lets you add PDF documents, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Scribd documents, Google Maps, as well as Twitter and Facebook updates, under a particular geotag. All these streams become searchable on GroundMap by their locations or geotags and the platform presents it in a timeline format called GroundMap activity stream.

In addition, you can also search for activity streams using the tag cloud on GroundMap’s main page. It also allows you to add location which are not yet in the tag cloud. Once other users starts using the geotag, it’s appearance in the GrooundMap tag cloud increases in size – meaning the more relevant the tag has become.

While GroundMap’s concept may not be ground breaking as other services might have featured it before, what makes it different from the rest is its ability to give you different sources of social media under one tag.

GroundMap is a pretty useful online tool.  It’s like other social bookmarking and recommendation sites such as Digg and Delicious done in a new way.

Check out the video demo for a more detailed explanation of GroundMap’s features.

Originally posted on December 30, 2009 @ 9:05 pm

Productivity App Evernote Reaches the 2 Million Mark, Thanks to iPhone

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You know Evernote? That very useful multi-platform productivity app that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Android, BlackBerry smartphones and of course iPhone and iPod Touch? I’m pretty sure that if you’re not using it right now, you’ve probably heard about it before. Well, guess what? Evernote just reached the 2 million user  mark. Aren’t we excited?  By all means we are.

I personally like Evernote’s iPhone app. It was the first productivity app that I used on my iPhone, although I could not say that I have become more productive since I started using it.  But still, it has helped me remember things that I would  otherwise forget if I didn’t use the app.

Anyway, going back to Evernote’s recent achievement, the official Evernote blog says that they wouldn’t have achieved the 2 million user mark if not for the big push in usage given by both Android and iPhone apps.  But looking at the given stats, it seems that Evernote has to thank only the iPhone since more than 1M users used the Evernote iPhone app. While Android could only give 26K+ users.

Evernote for Windows follow the iPhone app in terms of usage with more 600K people who used it, followed by the Evernote web app.

Here’s a breakdown of  Evernote’s usage stat, in case you’re curious to know.

  • 2,062,015 total Evernote users
  • 1,005,048 iPhone app users
  • 623,900 Windows users
  • 604,480 web app users
  • 342,620 Mac users
  • 90,972 Palm Pre users
  • 80,890 Windows Mobile users
  • 78,406  BlackBerry users
  • 29,861 Android users

If you haven’t used Evernote, now is probably a good time to start using it. Who knows? – It might help you be more productive in 2010.

Originally posted on December 30, 2009 @ 6:13 pm

The Top Stories at Digg Visualized via 365

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Screen shot 2009-12-29 at 6.36.50 PM

It was certainly a busy year for Digg as it struggles to stay relevant in 2009 with Facebook and Twitter getting too much attention in the social media scene. But with the year coming to a close, one thing is for sure – Diggers were still alive and kicking all through out the year.

Digg’s user base increased to 40 million in 2009. Meaning more people are digging stories and making sure that intriguing stories get into the Digg headlines. And there were several enhancements as well on the social bookmarking site including integration with Facebook Connect, the launch of DiggBar, Digg Ads, Digg Trends as well as the revamped Digg search engine.

To help us in visualizing the top stories that made it into Digg’s front page, Digg.com has launched a cool, interactive visualization tool that showcase the top stories at Digg in 2009.  You can check out the top stories on daily and monthly basis. The top headlines were given plus the number of Diggs those headlines received.

Clicking on each of the entries will bring you to the actual front page when the entries made it to Digg’s front page.

Go check out Digg 365 and be awed by this visualization tool. In case you’re interested to know, here are the top 5 stories at Digg in 2009:

Originally posted on December 29, 2009 @ 6:40 am

Google to Hold Big Android Press Event on Jan. 5

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googleandroidpressinvite

Alright folks, this is it. The rumors, info leaks, and increasing anticipation over Google’s own mobile phone, tentatively named “Nexus One” maybe finally come to an end. Google was reportedly sending out invitation to media for “an Android press gathering.”

And then the invitation also mentioned something about the first Android-powered device that was launched last year, obviously referring to the HTC Android phone as just the beginning of what’s possible.

With the growing anticipation over what was previously reported that Google was handing out the Google Phone to its employees for testing, the said invitation could only confirm one thing – the Google Phone, or Nexus One may be opt for launch during the said Android event.

Adding excitement to this Android event was TMoNews’ reporting that T-Mobile will be supporting the new Google Phone.  By support meaning – billing, coverage, features and rate plans. T-Mobile will not be dealing with technical and troubleshooting support as this will be handled directly by Google and HTC.

So, there. Something to watch out for as early as the first few days of 2010. Thank you Google for ushering in a more exciting tech scene for the new year. Can’t wait to find out what Google has in store for Nexus One.

Originally posted on December 29, 2009 @ 9:00 pm