SocialOnTheWeb

I'm always looking for someone who is just as unusual as I am, so I was excited when I was asked to join a social site called FindLikeMinds started by a couple of guys, so I did. I played for a bit with it, even taking time between visits for any updates to the site to be made. I was excited to see the Zeitgeist page, but when you click a link, it tells you to click the Zeitgeist page first. So, it got me nowhere, I was thinking it would give me an option to add the same item to my list.... But, who knows what it was supposed to accomplish. I don't see this being a terribly successful site because, at least how it is right now, you have to enter everything yourself. All of your influences, things you like, skills you have.... OH MY I have way too much and can't think of half the stuff when I'm asked to make a list. Give me a list to choose from, with common items, yet with the opportunity to add more individualized answers, and yes, I would probably be the top user.

I want to apologize to Rob at FindLikeMinds for taking so long in writing this critique, but if he witnessed my discussion on jaanix, he would surely understand that I wanted to be sure about a few things before I was accused of completely missing the point of the site. So, Rob, if I did miss the point, please be kind in your comments, and I will be more than willing to help you work out some kinks to make it a more user friendly site!

This site is still in beta, so just leave a request if you want an invite to check it out for yourself! 

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Toluu is a new social site where you share your feeds. I know, I had the same thought.... How the heck do you pronounce that? Well, Caleb was nice enough to answer this question: 2 (the number two) - Lou (as in 'Skip to my Lou') You can upload your OPML file, enter links manually, or add a bookmark that will automatically subscribe you to the feed on Toluu and your favorite (so long as it is in the top 10) feed reader.

I think that the one thing I like most about this site is that it tells you who you match up against. Of course, I have 2 that are at 100%, but that is only because they only have their own blogs loaded in their profiles. But, I have to admit that I was very impressed at 97% match that is listed for me. In order to protect myself from using names of people I do not know, I will not say who is my 97%, but that I had not previously befriended this person on any other site. I have seen this avatar and screen name on just about every site I spend any time on at all! So, I have decided to start secretly stalking this person some, to see if he or she might be someone I would really be friends with. Who knows, I may have found my social twin so to say!

The other really cool thing about this site is that you can see the blogs that others are reading. This is a great resource for someone new into learning about technology, social networking, or any other topic that your matches may read regularly! This may also be the way to find the next great blogger of our time!

The great guys at Toluu have given me a 7 invites, so if you haven't secured your invite yet, you better be one of the first seven to ask me! ;)  Oh yes, and if you are already involved in Toluu, be sure to add me!

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Well, it has been awhile since I blogged about jaanix, and I am also ashamed to say that I have not frequented the site quite so much, either. So, although my original intentions were to talk about another site or two I had checked out recently, I thought I should at least check back in with Joe at jaanix and see how he has been doing.

I have to tell you, I am quite impressed! The site seems to have grown massively beyond the young teen boy crowd! There is now a lot more geeky interest for people like me, who are fascinated by the social web!

I find it very interesting that the typical pages found on a website (about, FAQ, blog, and privacy) are not set up as you would find them in a different website, but each 'subject' is entered as a topic within the jaanix system. It is really rather clever, once you grow used to the site.

They have also minimized the tuner and have posted a teaser showing that you will soon be able to look at the web tuned by different individuals on the site.   This could be interesting! 

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The Next Web Awards are the European awards for future accomplishments! The categories are Entertainment, Company, Social, Web Celeb, Weblog, Rookie of the Year, and On Stage Startup.

I am excited to have found this site, not to vote for the nominees, but because I have heard of so few of the nominees, yet these are things that are making an impact in Europe.   So much more to look into!!

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I'd like to start by thanking Joe Petviashvili for taking the time to explain his new website a bit deeper with me. To save Joe from having to repeat himself, I've decided to post what I have learned about his new website, jaanix, and share with you all what makes this new way of sharing the web superior to so many other sites out there.

Joe explained to me that he is trying to solve a problem that is not currently solved by other social bookmarking or social news sites. His goal is to combine methods currently being used to gather the news we see into one site. He believes that with a mathematical algorithm his site jaanix can be tuned into your needs. The algorithm looks at the levels of various topics you select and compares this with others who have similar tastes, sites they have added, ways they have voted. You may be thinking that this could be the same as checking out what your friends have done on Digg, but it is much deeper than what Digg or other sites currently offer.

Other social sites allow you to like a topic or not. Jaanix allows you to like a topic a little, quite a bit, or anything in between, your choices of topics are only limited by what you choose to submit to jaanix! The first stop when arriving at jaanix is on the right... you will find a variety of topics with sliders, or tuners (this is how you tune the web to your taste!). First thing I did was turned 'off' the topics that I have no interest in and turned the topics I like way up! Then, as you go through and vote on submissions and submit items you find yourself, the topics will adjust to fit your tastes, as will the websites shown.

One thing that I certainly want to stress about jaanix is that it is not a cliquish voting site, as I had originally thought. The voting is purely for your own personal benefit. By voting for sites that you genuinely like, or voting down for sites you do not like, you are teaching the site to know what you want to see more of in the future.

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