Prezi, the Flash-Based Presentation Tool.

The company calls Prezi a zooming presentation editor and the description is accurate as a presentation seems to flow more cohesively via the presentation of numerous free-flowing ideas instead of being linear in nature.

That is the hope of Flash-based software/service Prezi and thanks to Robin Wauters at TechCrunch I learned about it this morning and have had a chance to look at some of the sample presentations and play with the editor as well. A few examples worth checking out are this one which shows just how graphics can really become a larger part of telling an overall story and this one where you can see how a great deal of text can be organized fairly cleanly.

You can try a free version which contains the company logo or 39 euros per year gives you more storage space and the ability to share your presentations online. For 119 euros you get a Mac and Windows desktop application which allows you to design and edit presentations offline.

Oprah loves Twitter.

Better than an endorsement from the Pope, Oprah will help (as if it needed it) it to grow even more. For instance,according to Compete, a Web analytics firm, Twitter had 14 million unique visitors in March, up from 8 million in February.

According to Oprah's Web site, she has just joined Twitter. She has ben silent up to now, but more than 30,000 followers have already signed up to follow her every 140-character thought, and the number is growing.

The rumor: she would write her first tweet on Friday, when she is dedicating her show to Twitter. (It airs at 4 p.m. Eastern time — check your local listings here for details on viewing the show in your area.)

Ashton Kutcher will be on the guestlist. He is one of Twitter's most active celebrity twitterers and will likely talk about his race with CNN to be the first to get a million followers. I took side for CNN which I am following.

Evan Williams, Twitter's chief executive, could be on the show, too. He mysteriously twittered this message this morning: "Tomorrow (Friday) just became a very big day.

(via NYT)

(update 17/04/09) Twitter was about to explode during the show which was not live, but taped at 11:00 AM ET. Just check the amount of tweets including Oprah in it here.

Through Webguild's Twitter feed, I found this interesting comment about this celebrities thing invading Twitter.

Natania Johnson on SearchEngineWatch wrote this:

"I don't mind celebrities using Twitter. But when I hear things like Oprah crowning Ashton Kutcher the "King" of Twitter, I think - why in the world does Oprah think she's the one who should make a proclamation?

...But with Twitter, the celebrities practically came from out of nowhere and decided they were the most awesome thing to come to Twitter since, well, the millions of users who were already there.

I guess it's just that I've watched people in a variety of niches really advance Twitter, and then Oprah comes along riding coattails and interviewing celebrities.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Twitter is getting so much attention. For those of you who are trying to market your business via Twitter, having Oprah's fans on there certainly helps.

But for those of us geeks who've been on Twitter for a while, this just feels like the captain of the cheerleading squad trying to take over the yearbook. Or the chess club."

Social Objects Site Building by Jyri Engeström.

In the following slideshow, Jyri Engeström, co-founder of Jaiku and now Google employee, speaks among other things about building sites around social objects. In other words, the social sites we visit today are not just friend networks - they're also built around objects that connect people with shared interests. These social objects could be anything from a photo on flickr to a video on YouTube or a track on Last.fm.

Microblogging: Tiny social objects. On the future of participatory media

View more presentations from Jyri Engeström.

The five key principles for building sites around social objects are:

1. Define Your Object: This is the easy part, but perhaps most important. The social object will be the center of your network. On eBay, it's whatever item you're selling or buying. On Amazon, it's a product. On Flickr, it's a photo and so on.

2. Define Your Verbs: This means what do you want people to do with your social object. Do you want them to comment? Rate it? Share it? Watch it? Etc. Make sure whatever action they should take is clear and highly visible on the site.

3. Make the Objects Shareable: This is almost a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how many sites have not made it easy (or even possible!) to share the object which their site is centered around.

4. Turn Invitations into Gifts: Want your friends to join you on the network? Don't just spam them with an invite, send them something of value. Jyri mentioned how a purchase of a Skype headset years ago also included a set for a friend. Also, PayPal had originally offered a small amount of money posted to the account of your friends who signed up for the service.

5. Charge the Publishers, Not the Spectators: On any network, there are those who are creating and those who are passively consuming the content. You shouldn't charge the latter, only the former. The people who are actively using the service and are getting value from it in some way are the ones who would be willing to pay for additional features or, in some cases, just to use the service itself.

Word Processing: Go Online or not.

The main benefit of online word processors is their availability from any computer with an Internet connection. You can't count on being able to access the same software on one computer that I used on the last — and unfortunately, although most modern file formats can be read by any word processor, there's always the risk of losing formatting, pagination, or fonts opening a document created in one program (or version) in another.

Using an online word processor means to have a standard format and interface from computer to computer. You don't have to worry about whether the version of Word on this computer matches the one on the computer where you started your document, or whether you won't be able to open it at all. You just log in to Google Docs or Buzzword and continue where you left off.

Off-site storage and backup is another advantage of online word processors. No matter what kind of trouble you get into, your documents are still safe and sound on servers hundreds of miles away.

When it comes to collaboration collaboration/sharing, most online word processors beat even the mighty Word, hands down. Documents can be worked on live, rather than emailing copies back and forth and trying to keep track of versions. Plus, most online word processors allow you to set various levels of permissions, so that you can offer read-only access to one group of viewers, full editing privileges to another, and the ability to add comments to a third. You can often post documents directly to the Web, too, which can be quite handy.

Finally, some online word processors just have good user interfaces. Google Docs is simple, streamlined, perfect for just opening a document and slapping some thoughts together. Adobe's Buzzword, on the other hand, is simply gorgeous.

The main weakness could be security or ... the perception around letting someone else guard your precious texts and secrets. But, if you feel safe enough about leaving thousands of dollars in someone else's bank, why not do the same with your writings. However, hardware isn't inherently more secure than web-based solutions — look at how many laptops, hard drives, and thumb drives get lost by businesses and even national security agencies like the FBI!

H & R Block Goes Web 2.0

You read right, H&R Block has a "new" Web 2.0 strategy. First, this podcast found on PodTech in which Paula Drum,vice president of marketing for H&R Block, explains how programs using Twitter, Second Life and other onlines venues have had impressive success..




The campaign created by 360i centered on creating a fun and educational online experience for consumers looking to find out more about taxes and H&R Block's tax solutions. 360i developed portable assets that proved taxes could be fun and engaging, including games and quizzes, which were then spread across the Web for consumers to find and share with friends. In addition, 360i created a robust social media strategy to distribute these assets and to support H&R Block's fictional "brand evangelist," Truman Greene.

The social media program also included:

Creating a brand presence in social spaces, giving consumers a platform to interact with HRB on MySpace, Facebook, and eHarmony.

Highlighting HRB's digital products through interactive and sharable widgets.

Starting conversations with online influencers using Twitter.

In his blog, Fagstein commentsd this:

"The videos of the Montreal portion of the trip start at Episode 24 (which is on YouTube but hasn't been posted to the H&R website yet).

After that you can see the fun of hauling luggage up stairs, putting on makeup and walking around taking pictures.

My favourite though is Episode 27, in which "Cassidy" (who knows/cares if that's his real name) walks out of an apartment next to Café Chaos on St. Denis and somehow ends up on an OC Transpo bus holding a copy of Ottawa's 24 Hours daily before the sun comes up. That's some fast walking! "

Doesn't matter. I will still complete my tax forms by myself, even though I am all for Web 2.0 marketing.

Please Retweet Me

The "Retweet" (or RT) is the act of republishing a tweet from another user by adding RT before it, in order to share it with his community of followers.

Please Retweet Me is a new service that allows those who have articles, information, applications or causes to be "Retweeted" easily (by clicking on a special link appended at the end of the message which allows you to republish it on its own account).

Embedr: Create Video Playlists; Shozu: Centraliz your Upload.

Yesterday, I registered to two new webwares: Embedr and Shozu.

With Embedr, you’ll be able to almost instantly create a custom video playlist, which you’ll then be able to embed on your site. All you have to do is name your playlist, and then start adding videos from different services.

You can add tags, descriptions, and other things to make the playlist more complete. After you’re done, you’ll be given the embed code, which you’ll then be able to paste into you site’s code, allowing everyone to see it.

Online video has come a long way since the early days of YouTube, and Embedr.com is a clear testament of that.

As an example, here is a playlist I created from videos about the Buffalo Plane Crash.

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

With ShoZu, you can transfer content from your phone directly to as many as 30 content sharing sites including YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, and Webshots. This is done using ShoZu’s patented upload system. In addition to the convenience that the service provides, users also save money on data costs by only sending a single message, ShoZu handles the rest. ShoZu works in both directions, users can have online content sent to their phones. Over 300 cell phones are compatible with ShoZu.

(via Crunchbase)

Splashcast Extends its Free Service for a While Longer.

I was going to write a note about the lack of reaction around the disappearance of Splashcast's free service, lack of buzz, which showed maybe it is the right thing to do.

Until Sunday, they were only four notes written about it on the Internet:

On NorthWest Innovation

Silicon Florists

Now Public

Oregon Startup Blog

On the Splashcast blog, only six complaints. So, did anyone care really? The guys at Splashcast seemed to care:

"We have been listening!

Many SplashCast community members have requested that we continue offering our free product. Frankly, we were surprised and delighted by the passionate response.

In response, we have decided to offer any user an extension of their free account for at least another few months. During this time we will determine whether there is enough demand to support a monthly subscription-based service. You can request your free account extension on this page:

http://splashcastmedia.com/blog/survey.aspx

Thank you all for your feedback. We are listening to you.

Sincerely,
Mike
CEO "

Thanks guys. Now, you are talking.

Splashcast Pulls the Plug on Free Service

After a couple of years in service, Splashcast finally decided to to discontinue their user generated content product as of February 11. Tom Turnbull writes on the startup blog:

"All successful startup companies must focus. SplashCast is no different. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue our user generated content product as of February 11. We want to give our loyal (and brilliantly creative) users a chance to find other services that meet their needs.

This is a tough decision for us. I personally enjoy checking out our user generated channels. There is some truly amazing content, from hilarious to moving."

I also read here that the user base of their premium video applications is about 100 times larger than their UGC user base including several of the largest brand advertisers who are lining up to sponsor Splashcast's primetime TV and music apps.

Obviously, some people are not very happy about this decision as you can read in Splashcast blog's comments section.

Erwin Blom: "Strange, I’d say you wouldn’t be where you are now without the user generated channels. They helped spreading your word. And now the word is out, you don’t need them anymore? Strange."

Chris Brennan: "You are turning your back on the very people that helped you broadcast your brand to the world. You have an amazing product but you are making a very poor business decision. If the option were given to me, I personally would have registered for a paid version. However, you have given no us no option. I used to be a raving fan of Splashcast. Please reconsider your decision. Thank you."

Now, we will have to find an alternative solution. Is there a way to download the files (shows) as a whole, instead of redoing the whole thing using another presentation tool?

So long Google Video Upload, Notebook, Catalog Search and DodgeBall.

Google wrote officially about the closures and changes in the following posts:

Turning Down Uploads at Google Video
Farewell, Google Catalog Search
Stopping development on Google Notebook
Changes for Jaiku and Farewell to Dodgeball and Mashup Editor

Google Video was transformed more into a meta video search service than a site for hosting videos.

Google Catalogs is a service that long ago was effectively abandoned by Google.

Google Notebook closes, though those with existing accounts can continue to save material. New accounts won’t be allowed, however — nor will the service be further developed, and the Google Notebook Extension for browsers will no longer work.

Dodgeball was designed to allow people to easily connect with others near them via their cell phones.

And what about Jaiku? Jaiku is a micro-blogging service similar to Twitter that never got out of the invite-only stage. The Jaiku code will be made available to anyone. Jaiku will be maintained as place for people to post as well, supported by volunteer Googlers.