Every now and again some of us at ReadWriteWeb pop up in video or podcast recordings. Marshall Kirkpatrick moreso than me, as he is based in the US. And Marshall is appearing on an interesting live video show tonight, called Strange Love Live. It will be broadcast live on Ustream at 10pm PST tonight (Friday). Hosted by Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal, Strange Love Live focuses on the latest happenings in online tech - calling on techies around the Portland, Oregon area to provide insight into their areas of expertise. Interesting without being dull, recent topics have ranged from OpenID to WordPress to iPhone apps. We're looking forward to seeing Marshall live tonight! Tune in at 10pm PST.

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Recent RWW Appearances on The Interwebs

Yours truly (RWW editor Richard MacManus) was interviewed at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco by Alison McNeill of bub.blicio.us:

Marshall Kirkpatrick was recently on the popular TWiT.tv show net@night with Amber and Leo. The hosts Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte had a lot of fun trying to pronounce our name - hence the episode name of WeadWiteWeb!

Also check out Marshall's podcast with The Recruiters Lounge, talking about our new product Jobwire, and Jason Cormier's interview with Marshall on Capture The Conversation.

Discuss

This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services.

So far, voting in the Blog Plugins category is neck and neck between two services with very similar functions: ShareThis and AddThis. The two plugins make it easy for your blog’s readers to bookmark your site and submit it to social news sites like Digg and Reddit. Several other plugins that help publishers increase page views and engagement are still in the running though. Here’s a quick look at the 10 finalists:

AddThis – Plugin for bookmarking your blog posts and submitting them to social news sites. Recently acquired by Clearspring.

Apture – Links specific words or phrases on a web page to multimedia content like music, video, and Wikipedia entries.

CommentLuv – Lets commenters attach a link to their most recent blog post to their comments.

Leevigraham – Developer of several popular plugins for features like polls, multi-language support, and custom forms.

Ninja Zoo – Plugin for selling your own custom designed products.

Outbrain – Lets users rate blog posts and suggests similar content from your blog and elsewhere.

Plista – Shows similar stories or products.

ShareThis – Lets your readers bookmarks posts and share with friends. Also provides analytics on their sharing habits.

Snap – Adds a “preview” function to the outgoing links on your blog.

Zemanta – Automatically adds links, pictures, and tags to your blog posts.

VOTE OFTEN: One Vote Per Category Per Day

Now it’s time to vote for your favorite blog plugin in the first of two voting rounds. You can vote for one company per day until midnight on November 30th.

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Feel free to embed this widget on your own blog or website by clicking the “Grab This” button! For a timeline, rules and information on our 100 blog partners, please visit the Open Web Awards site.

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You got through? Congratulations! Did you know you can create a custom version of our voting widget above to post to your company blog or website? Just visit the Open Web Awards Widget Creator and check the box to preset a category or company. This means your fans only need to enter an email address to vote - simple!

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Want others to vote for your favorite site? Of course you do! Why not leave a comment here and on any of our international partner blogs encouraging other readers to add their support? The more you promote your candidate across these blogs, the more likely it is for your site to proceed to the finals!

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Most people quickly answer this question in the affirmative. I certainly do. However, there are people out there who aren't sure. They look at the monthly cost of a SaaS application and compare it to the equivalent licensed product over an extended period of time. Given enough time, you will eventually hit a point when the SaaS product appears to be more expensive. Let's look at it from the perspective of the total cost of ownership (TCO).

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The true cost of a licensed product is much higher than just the software. Here are other things to factor in:

• Hardware costs: You have to either buy machines or add your software to existing servers and manage them. If it is a mission-critical application, you will probably need dedicated machines and back-ups.
• Additional software costs: You will most likely need an OS, application server software, a database, monitoring software, etc. Many of these products are open source now, but there are still associated costs.
• Implementation costs: In my experience, the implementation costs associated with a behind-the-firewall solution are always higher than those of a SaaS application. There is simply more to do. You will either pay consultants or use your own valuable resources and time to worry about installing software, integrating it, building servers, configuration, etc.
• Maintenance labor: If you have in-house software, there is going to be some level of effort required to keep it happy. Your IT people will need to take care of it, which will keep them from doing more value-added activities.

Another huge factor here is the ability to get the latest and greatest technology. Once you install software in a data center, it becomes more difficult to upgrade and maintain it (especially if you customize it). In such a case, you will be stuck with old software that you will have to replace in the same time frame described above. In other words, unless you are absolutely sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your licensed software is going to meet your business needs for 5 years or more, then SaaS might make financial sense.

Let's look at a real-world example. A 100-person company has been sharing files via email and internal servers. The executives have finally concluded they need to join the 21st century and put a solution in place. One option is to implement SharePoint. Here is a rough estimate of what that might cost:

Year 1
MOSS server = $4,500
User client access license = $90
Hosting and maintenance = $5,000
Implementation and developer support = $20,000
Total = $29,590

Year 2 and on
Hosting and maintenance = $5,000
Developer support = $3,000
Total = $8,000

I know of a SaaS solution that has 80% of the file-collaboration functionality of SharePoint but charges $850 per month for 100 users.

Year 1
SaaS fees = $10,200
Implementation support = $10,000
Total = $20,200

Year 2 and on
SaaS fees = $10,200
Total = $10,200

It would take over 4 and a half years before the licensed software became cheaper. By that time, I'm quite sure there would be another solution that could replace SharePoint, and the cycle would start again. We can quibble about the numbers, but you get the point. Plus, the numbers don't reflect that the SaaS solution is likely to improve and innovate faster than the licensed software by a significant amount.

What do you think? Have you done this analysis, and what did you conclude?

Discuss

The elections were good to the HuffingtonPost, the political uber-blog. It’s audience in the U.S. rose fivefold in the last year to 5 million monthly uniques in October, according to comScore (see chart below). In what may turn out to be perfect market timing, the Times UK is reporting that the company is close to raising $15 million. In the past, it has raised a total of $12 million from investors including Softbank Capital, Greycroft Partners, Bob Pittman, and Ken Lerer.

As with all political sites, it is likely that the HuffPo’s traffic will dip now that the election fever is over. The question for investors, though, is whether its current levels represent a peak or, whether it can take advantage of its new-found audience to establish a solid, new traffic floor from which to keep growing. If you look at the HuffPo’s chart from Google Trends (above), it looks like traffic is at the very least plateauing so far in November, as you would expect.

Where does it go from here?

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Psst—it’s Friday. Partay.

• Bad news for the SEO industry: we’ve seen the elephant. We’ve jumped the shark. We’ve made USA Today’s Small Business Strategies column.
• SEO Blackhat says that they’ve Confirmed that Bounce Rate is A Search Engine Ranking Factor. Well, from their graphs, I see that their overall traffic, Google traffic and bounce rate all declined at the same time. But if I remember my Google Analytics correctly, bounce rate going down actually means that fewer people are leaving your site after viewing just one page, so your site is stickier. So Google rewards sites that people leave quickly with higher rankings and thus more traffic? I’m not convinced. Correlation still isn’t causation—couldn’t it be that Google traffic dropped off (for whatever reason) and then a higher proportion of visitors are the loyal visitors who weren’t bouncing anyway?
• Here’s one idea sure to help your SEO (not): if your site’s not coming up on a search for your name, especially if you’re a law firm, sue Google. Yeah, I don’t get it either.
• Most businesses cut back in economic times like these. But Business Week reports that Facebook’s doing the opposite
• First, Facebook Connect partnered with Citysearch. Now is an Open Beta of Google Friend Connect Coming Soon? The very similar product has been in limited beta since its announcement—will this be enough to help it take off?
• So that’s who’s still on MySpace—everyone. BlackBerry’s new MySpace app has already shattered the download record.
• First they got the search deal with T-mobile, now Yahoo’s got a New beta version of m.yahoo.com coming soon.

If you were intrigued by BitGravity’s Multiview product that allows viewers to choose from six different camera angles as they watch an event, check out episode 177 of Diggnation today at 3 pm PST.

The regular “director’s cut” will be shown at at Diggnation.com. The customized version will be available here on the Revision3 website.

We’ve got a few screenshots of today’s show (actually, we’ve seen the show, but we can’t post it here, you’ll have to watch at 3 PM).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Jessica Smith is Chief Mom Advisor of MomForce.com and Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com. She chronicles her experiences as a mom and virtual executive at JessicaKnows.com.

More and more moms are leaving the nine-to-five corporate grind and finding themselves working virtually from home in order to spend more quality time with their children. These balance-achieving moms need to stay productive, flexible, and as stress-free as possible what with carpooling the kids, making dinner, and advancing their careers.

As a mom who works virtually myself, I’ve tried out my share of productivity and communications tools. Now I’m going to share with you the five I can’t live without:

Google Apps

I use GMail to manage five different accounts related to the different projects I’m working on. I use Google docs to collaborate with other moms for event planning, project execution, and information capture. And Google calendar is a life saver when scheduling meetings because it plays nice with just about any calendaring platform out there. The bonus? Now that I have a T-Mobile G1, I cut out the step of a daily sync because Google’s Android platform syncs “over the air.” Meaning, I can focus on my child, the dishes, my clients, the mom communities, etc. instead of trying to remember the last time I synched my BlackBerry.

Remember the Milk

As a busy mom, every second counts. Fleeting ideas and phone calls can happen unexpectedly and sometimes at the most distracted part of my day (erm…that would be every part). Remember the Milk is a task list tool that I also use to capture those ideas, jot a quick note, or write down a few words to jog my memory later.

Using the Gmail Remember the Milk Add-on, this nifty little tool now lives within my Gmail screen. Handy and unintrusive, I don’t have to open any extra windows to get what’s in my head on that list. Literally, within seconds, it’s captured and saved. And with my hectic life? Every second counts. Alternatives to Remember the Milk include Jott and Evernote.

Twitter

Seems like more and more moms are on Twitter every day. So it was no surprise when the moms’ twitter streams made headlines recently after a Motrin ad rubbed many moms the wrong way. However, a lot of moms, like me, use Twitter as a way to keep up with current events, parenting resources, and developing friendships. And more moms than you might think are using Twitter as a professional networking tool. I’d even argue that I use Twitter stream as a blog reader that sees more action than my Google Reader.

Want to find moms on Twitter?

- Use Twitter Search with the search term mom, baby, or other keyword like baby sling, preschool, etc to find other like-minded moms on Twitter.

- Sign up for the Twitter Moms Ning group to connect and share with other Moms on Twitter and find new ones to follow.

- Look for a link to the mommy blogger’s Twitter profile on your mommy blogs.

Facebook

Sure, I’ve connected with childhood chums on Facebook as far back as elementary school on this ever-popular (some might even say THE most popular) social networking site. However, I also use it as an effective way to make important announcements about projects I’m working on, sharing resources I’ve found helpful with other moms, and discovering new blogs and websites to read and explore further.

The Notes application makes it easy to share my feed with those that might not be avid blog readers and the Groups function lets me make new connections within various niches of interest. I’ve even designed my own flair with the logos of the companies I work with. Facebook can be a total time waster, but if used properly it can be a valuable tool.

Feeling overwhelmed? Start with these mom-friendly Facebook apps:

- Add your blog, support your favorites and discover new ones with Blog Network.

- Support your favorite charity or express your passion for a cause with the Facebook application Causes.

- Escape from preschool TV show line-up and be entertained by taking your friends quizzes or making up your own with the Quizzes app.

YouMail

This is a neat application that works with your cell phone’s voicemail. A lot of people will find this useful, but moms especially. I know there are some times when because of a yapping puppy and a tired, cranky preschooler, I just can’t get to the phone. With YouMail, not only can I set up different voicemails depending on who the caller is, I can also see who left a voicemail in my email. This, with the ability to forward a voicemail by email to some else, helps me prioritize and therefore makes me productive.

Plus, it takes Caller-ID to a whole different level, by showing me not just the number but the location, too. Working virtually, I get calls from all over the country, so this feature is very useful when taking time zones and the appropriate time to return a call into consideration.

Living a balanced life as a full-time mom and a virtual executive isn’t easy and it’s certainly not without stress. But I’ve found that using a few key tools consistently, makes for a more productive and therefore, more successful outcome both with my family and my career.

What are your must have tools?

Jessica Smith has successfully brought her 8 years of marketing and business development experience home with her, literally. She is Chief Mom Advisor and the woman behind the idea for MomForce.com, Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, and works with big brands including Walmart and Ford. Jessica offers a personal glimpse into her life as a mom and virtual executive at JessicaKnows.com. Her specialties include creating buzz and community for companies that target moms through new media. She has also been recently tapped as one of the 50 Most Influential and Powerful Women in Social Media as #23. Jessica enjoys the best of both worlds, motherhood and career, at home in the DC Metro area with her husband and young son. You can find her on Twitter as @jessicaknows.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, iofoto

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Here’s a nice discussion from the New York Times’ Bits Blog—and a debate held this week by Intelligence Squared US. The arguments, naturally, centered around Google’s purported motto: “Don’t be evil.”

Everything from corporate identity to workplace policies to business behavior was fair game. The Bits summary of the arguments included seven deadly sins of Google and eight of its virtues (both of which I hope were delivered tongue-in-cheek). Sins, complete with Latin, from Siva Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor at the University of Virginia:

Luxuria (extravagance or lust): The people who work there get massages. That is corporeal lust of the highest order.

Gula (gluttony): They can eat all day, no matter what they want. There is so much food that they never need to say no. That is the very definition of gluttony.

Avaritia (greed): The Google-Yahoo advertising deal is one of many examples of Google overreaching to corner a market, or completely undermine a market, in an effort to maximize its returns.

Acedia (sloth): Its very model of advertising is based on free-riding. Google makes money off of our work. We blog, we put our cats on skateboards and record them for videos. We do all of this work, and then Google harvests our work, runs all of this content through this computers, spits it back out at us, with almost no actual value added.

Ira (wrath): There are hundreds of small companies all around America that have found their Google ranks decline significantly because they tried to optimize their results. They were just doing what a company should do, trying to get more attention for themselves. And Google’s algorithms, its faceless, soulless algorithms, came at them with wrath.

Invidia (envy): Google has recently tried to push its suite of services that directly compete with Microsoft Office. Of course they have at various times threatened to muscle out eBay, muscle out PayPal, muscle out Amazon, in various ways.

Superbia (pride, or hubris): The actual motto of the company is “To organize the world’s information to make it universally accessible.” What could be more hubristic than that?

And virtues from Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? (sadly, no Latin):

Google has opened up the world’s knowledge to the world: No longer do we end an argument saying, I don’t know. We go to Google. Google will tell us.

Google respects the wisdom of the crowd: Google learns what it learns because it trusts us.

Google takes the wisdom of the crowd and it gives it back to us: Look at the Google Flu Trends search. It lets us know how often we search for a flu, and how the flu trend is coming. That is our knowledge, not Google’s.

Google connects people: We often are accused online of being anti-social. I think we’ve become hyper-social. I think we’re more connected. Admit it, how many of you have searched Google for an old girlfriend or boyfriend?

Google is a platform that enables us to create: It is an age of creation, and Google creates the platforms, the tools to let us create, the means to let us pay for that.

Google does have ads: [Web publishers] can do what we want with our ads. We can start whole businesses with [Google]. We can create movements with it. We can be found with it. And I believe that Google ads will help support the future even of news.

Google.org is trying to solve (with hubris) the problem of energy and global warming: Politicians are trying to get us on energy with regulation and taxes and prohibitions and slaps on the wrist. Google is giving this investment, and innovation, and invention.

Google has a new model on how to treat employees: We get, they get, massages. [He stops here because his time runs out]

The official debate was a draw, with just under half of the audience voting for and against. The comments of the Bits blog (through the first 99 comments) was, naturally, a bit more slanted in favor of Google: 30% decided it was evil, 43% said it wasn’t and 26% said both, neither, or “FIRST!” (j/k).

Based on these arguments, what do you think. Has Google violated it’s “Don’t be evil” motto?

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Google SearchWiki — a new feature that allows you to move and comment on search results — has been out for less than a day, and it’s amazing to see how much confusion (as well as commentary) there is already developing. So below, some clarification on how it works,...

Don't trust what you read on the internet? That's no longer the dominant sentiment in the US, according to a new poll by Zogby International. A survey of more than 3000 people performed in the two days after the US Presidential Election found that 37.6% of respondents considered the Internet the most reliable source of news, 20.3% consider national TV news most reliable and 16% said that radio is the most reliable source.

The survey found that most people find all the news biased in some way and there were a number of other interesting findings. It's quite striking, though, that we're at a point in history where the internet is trusted more than TV and the Radio!

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More Numbers

Other results of interest include:

• 72.6% believe the news they read and see is biased


• 88.7% Republican and 57.5% Democrat respondents describe the news media as biased.


• Lest we conclude that the Republican/Democrat split represents sour grapes more than anything else - 39.3% of those surveyed trust FOX News most for the issues they consider most important, followed by CNN with 16% and MSNBC with 15%.

The survey was commissioned by the Independent Film Channel for the IFC Media Project. The full details will be posted on the IFC site later tonight.

Zogby is a reputable polling firm but they have come up with some very interesting results before in other surveys. Last fall we wrote about a Zogby poll in which 24% of respondents said the Internet could serve as a replacement for a significant other and 11% of respondents said they were very or somewhat likely to "implant a device into your brain that enabled you to use your mind to access the internet if it could be done safely." That's a really bad idea.

A Turning Point in History

This fall we wrote about how Google is changing political debate like nothing else ever has before. It may or may not be particular Internet news sources that are trusted by the respondents to this latest poll - it may just be the world of searchable information that makes a much for a richer and more informed understanding of the news. That's pretty hard to argue with.

Either way, this is a historic turning point. The Internet, the medium most famous for being untrustworthy, at this time when it's more characterized than ever by the ability for anyone to publish, is now more trusted that professional TV and Radio news!

Given both the obvious and documented affinity that young people today have for learning with the Internet - it doesn't seem like TV, radio and newspapers stand much of a chance in the future. Do they?

Discuss

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SEM Pre-Click & Post-Click Double Feature: Conversion Attribution and Q&A with Analytics Guru Eric Peterson In The Trenches is a spotlight of tips,...

When most private companies reach 500 shareholders, they trigger an SEC rule which effectively treats them like a public company and requires them to some of the same reporting requirements. Google ran into this issue just before it went public. Now Facebook is quickly reaching that same threshold as it continues to hire and allows employees to sell shares to outside investors.

But in a letter dated October 13, 2008 (embedded below), Facebook’s lawyers argue that rule should not apply to Facebook because most of the shareholders are employees. The SEC granted the exemption.

So Facebook can keep issuing both restricted stock and options to new employees without fear of triggering the (costly) reporting requirements. As long as most of those shares stay inside Facebook, the company should be all right. But if enough employees take advantage of its program allowing them to sell shares to outsiders, and the number of outside investors grows beyond a handful or a few dozen, the SEC might want to revisit this decision.

Facebook Letter to SEC - Get more Legal Forms

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In The Trenches is a spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: news from the search engines, today’s double feature is Pre-Click: Conversion Attribution 101 and Post-Click Q&A with web analytics...

As we reported yesterday, Shaquille O’Neal is on Twitter, and it’s definitely the real Shaq. But two days ago as a few people started discovering The Big Aristotle’s account, not everyone was convinced.

Bryant Blount (aka lord_b) was one of the doubters after first hearing about @THE_REAL_SHAQ on a sports website. The back and forth between the two ultimately lead to an unforgettable phone call for a sports fan, and perhaps proves once and for all that Shaq is the coolest star athlete on the planet.

After first hearing about Shaq’s presence on Twitter, Blount decided to follow him. A few hours later, much to Blount’s surprise, Shaq followed him back. Skeptical, Blount tweeted “shaq has requested to follow me…boy is he gonna be disappointed.”

A bit later, he added “still 30% skeptical about shaq tweeting…will continue to investigate and report back with any new findings.” Low and behold, Shaq responded at 1am (the guy doesn’t appear to sleep based on his tweets), “LORD B, DNT B SKEPTICAL, ITS ME GIMME A NUMBER I WILL CALL U.”

The Call

Since Blount’s Twitter account is private, he decided to go ahead and post his phone number. Blount explained to me what happened the next day at work. “I was just doing some stuff at work and tweeted ‘waiting for the big Aristotle to enlighten me’. Then a blocked number came up on my phone and I answered. It definitely sounded like Shaq,” he told me. A bit starstruck, the two chatted for “3 or 4 minutes” about Twitter, the “fake” Shaq, and Blount’s hometown – New Haven, CT – where Shaq apparently used to play basketball with some people.

Is Shaq Really That Cool?

After the conversation, Shaq tweeted “I just talk to my good friend lord b, hes cool, im a invite him to a game , him and his family.” Of course, all of this was simply amazing to Blount, who tweeted, “@THE_REAL_SHAQ Big ups to shaq for making my life with that call. you can see why the big fella needs so many nicknames–he’s mad cool.”

Expanding beyond 140 characters, Blount told me “I just thought it was amazing that Shaq was tweeting and really direct. A lot of [athletes] have blogs, MySpace, and Facebook, but Shaq on Twitter is pretty crazy because a lot of people are hearing him. I was never a huge Shaq fan, but one of the things he said was ‘I’m a regular guy just like you.’ I think he’s a great guy and a great person, you can just tell.”

What’s Next For Shaq on Twitter?

Kathleen Hessert, who manages Shaq’s online marketing, commented on our post yesterday: “Shaq is a joyful person and a riot to be around. He not only gets attention but actually attracts people - he’s magnetic and genuine. That’s why I recommended that he twitter. Frankly it suits him and he’s one of a select few who actually do care about his fans. He’s learning twitter on the run and tomorrow I’m showing him how to respond@ to a fan.”

Sure enough, today saw Shaq make his first reply to a follower. The big man is clearly enjoying himself on the service, and while it might be more of a testament to his personality than the virtues of Twitter, it’s remarkable to watch.

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Just about half a year ago, Google announced a limited beta of Friend Connect, which allows site owners to display OpenSocial based gadgets on their sites and site visitors to sign in to these social gadgets with their OpenID, AIM, Yahoo, or Google accounts.

Amit Agarwal has been keeping a close eye on Friend Connect since it was announced and he assumes that the service could go live pretty soon. Just last week, Google published a new YouTube video geared towards users and now the support site for Friend Connect is available as well.

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Some of the gadgets Google currently supplies are a comment wall and a ratings gadget. Friend Connect will also work with third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community. To enable these gadgets, all a site owner has to do is to copy and paste some code snippets into their site's HTML.

Google Profiles Meets MyBlogLog

Lately, Google has started to put a lot more emphasis on its own user profiles, and Friend Connect makes good use of them. Once you join a Friend Connect enabled site, other users will be able to see information from your profile, though you can set your privacy settings to disallow others from seeing your profile pages as well. In many ways, this is quite similar to MyBlogLog.

It's Social, But is it Open?

When Friend Connect was first announced, we were concerned about the direction Google was taking with this implementation of the OpenSocial standards. Also, as we noted in our earlier posts, the Friend Connect apps are displayed in an iframe, which is basically a separate web page inside another web page. Because of this, these apps are black boxes that live on your site, but don't allow the site owners to really leverage the data from these apps on their own sites.

It is interesting to note that the latest Google video about Friend Connect still prominently features Facebook as a supported service, even though Facebook has decided to eschew OpenSocial in favor of its own platform. The help pages for Friend Connect don't feature a list of supported services yet.

Benefits

There are, however, also some clear benefits to using Friend Connect. Through this service, a site owner might be able to create more user loyalty and enthusiastic readers can evangelize your site by publishing their activity on it to their own social network. Visitors will also be able to invite their friends on social networks to join your site.

In an early press release about Friend Connect, Google stated that this initiative was about helping the 'long tail' of sites to become more social. While we might worry about  some of the details of Google's implementation, this by itself is a worthy cause, and it will be interesting to see how site owners will implement Friend Connect once it becomes publically available.

Discuss

As its name suggests, Sloshspot is a website for people looking to have a good time – perhaps too good of a time. Like many sites before it, Sloshspot is an index of bars and nightspots, where users can leave reviews, post photos, and check out other “regulars” of different locales. Venues can maintain their own presence on the site to keep their regulars informed of events and drink specials.

What makes Sloshspot interesting, unique, and maybe a bit of an enabler, is a point system that allows users to earn rewards for more participation on the site. Of course, more participation – like posting photos and comments from a night out at a particular venue – requires more time out on the town.

As you participate more on the site, you move up to different levels – from lightweight, to weekend warrior, to socialite, etc. At each level, you unlock new site features, like things you can add to your profile, and eventually become eligible for prizes like iTunes gift cards and of course, free kegs.

Sloshspot also offers an iPhone app so you can find bars, events, and shows on the go. The app automatically detects your location, then lets you search the database to find something nearby. You can see all of the same data that’s available on the website, like ratings, the regulars, and who’s attending on a given night.

The big competition for Sloshspot would seem to be MySpace, where many venues already maintain their own presence where you can do much of the same, by becoming a “friend” of a given place, checking the event schedule, or leaving comments with your reviews and photos.

Where Sloshspot has a chance to standout is with its reward system and a mobile experience specific to those that can’t get enough of the nightlife. And if those two components can take off, there is certainly money to be made in hyperlocal advertising to a crowd that’s looking to spend money.

See Also: The Top Social Networks Where Alcohol is Allowed

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LittleShoot is a new web-based p2p file sharing site founded by one of the creators of LimeWire that could live up to its pedigree and then some. While being web-based naturally makes the service more attractive than downloadable file-sharing apps, LittleShoot has a few other killer features that could make it the new model for p2p.

For one, LittleShoot is starting off by serving as a search index for services that already have billions of files, like YouTube, Flickr, and yes, LimeWire. Thus, searching for just about anything will yield a plethora of results that you can download right to your computer. LittleShoot includes its own player too, so as a video or song is downloading, you can view and listen from the browser.

Speedy Downloads

Once those files are downloaded, they become part of the p2p network that is LittleShoot. Like other p2p services before it, LittleShoot works by downloading pieces of content from other users that have a given file, in the most efficient way possible. The service is optimized not just to find the most nearby computers with the file, but also defaulting (when possible) to users on the same ISP to further pump up the download speeds.

Anonymous Publishing

Publishing files to LittleShoot is also exceptionally easy. You simply browse your hard drive and select the files you’d like to upload. You can add tags to your files to help improve the search index. You can access your files from a “Publish” tab on the site, where you can edit, open, or delete them. LittleShoot requires no registration, which should give users some sense of anonymity in uploading their files (of course, whether copyright holders demand IP addresses at some point is another issue).

Turning Twitter into a p2p Platform

Although not live yet, another big feature LittleShoot has in the works will essentially turn Twitter into a file sharing service. When you upload files, you’ll have the option to tweet a link to them, which in turn will be tremendous viral marketing for LittleShoot while significantly improving the performance of the p2p network, since files will be hosted on more and more computers as they get downloaded.

For Developers

LittleShoot also plans to offer tools to external developers, so “any site can include our javascript library and create a p2p YouTube, for example, but where flash files stream just as if they weren’t p2p,” says co-founder Adam Fisk.

Why Are They Doing This?

There are already a ton of p2p download services, many of which are under constant attack by copyright holders and industry groups. Essentially, Fisk and his team think file sharing has evolved in the wrong direction in the Web 2.0 world.

“People flocked to put their videos and photos on sites like YouTube and Facebook, and those sites now control an astonishing percentage of our digital content. Corporate ads are slapped on personal videos. Privately shared content is taken down due to bogus copyright claims. Sharing has become synonymous with forsaking one’s right to manage one’s own content,” the company says.

LittleShoot could certainly shake things up, and given how long Limewire has managed to survive, I wouldn’t bet against it being a new disruptive force in p2p file sharing with some staying power.