Make A Mobile Version Of Your Site With MoFuse
I first heard about MoFuse when ReadBurner released a mobile version for their service. ReadBurner mobile utilizes MoFuse and I’m a fan of ReadBurner Mobile’s interface. So yesterday, I decided to give MoFuse a try. Here’s a look at the MoFuse service and how I came to the decision to use it for SheGeeks.net
Free Service
Making SheGeeks mobile with MoFuse was quick, easy, and most importantly (for poor college students) free! With a free account, the mobile version of your site is hosted on MoFuse so there’s no picking your own URL. Your site is formatted for the average mobile phone and the iPhone, and includes keyboard shortcuts.
Here’s a list of other great features that MoFuse offers for free:
- Track stats for your mobile site
- Customize the look, add your logo, edit the homepage
- Add a comment widget for mobile visitors
- Automatically redirect visitors to the mobile version of your site (N/A Blogger)
Other Features
You can always upgrade the site to a Pro account, which gives you the first month free, ability to use your own domain name, unlimited mobile sites, monitization options and a few other minor features for only $3 per month.
MoFuse was definitely a great choice for SheGeeks.net. The service is quick and easy. I love the way SheGeeks looks now, which is much better than Google’s reformatting of the site. Be sure to bookmark http://shegeeks.mofuse.mobi on your phone so that you can check SheGeeks on the go.
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Brightkite Updates Pose A Problem On Twitter
The location based mobile social network Brightkite, may be facing a bit of a backlash with Twitter users. While the service is nicely gaining ground with Twitter users, there are some that are more than irritated with one of Brightkite’s most popular features: sending location updates to Twitter.
Recently, prolific Twitter user and one of my mentors, Wayne Sutton, posed an interesting question about some user reactions to Brightkite:
http://twitter.com/waynesutton/statuses/810698074
Twitter Responses
While users responded that they don’t hate Brightkite, thoughts on the service ranged from privacy concerns to Brightkite not being a "real" mobile technology.
Privacy and Stalking
I whole heartedly agree with the responses. While Brightkite may be great for other reasons, tweeting your locations to your followers isn’t one of them. There are ways to mislead users and pretend to update from locations that you’re no where near. This is also a great tool for stalking people. However, to counter the latter, Brightkite does offer you the option of only allow "Trusted Friends" to see your exactly location update. Though even with this feature I’ve seen numerous tweets from both Wayne and others with their exact whereabouts.
More Noise
In addition, it’s all just more noise because location tweets really don’t serve a purpose on Twitter unless you’re at a conference. You don’t need an exact address for that. Just tell whomever you’re meeting up with where you are. Better yet, text or call them and keep it private. If I can’t meet you based on where you are, why would I care to know that type of information?
Not So Bright Idea?
This have have seemed like a good idea when Brightkite first premiered, however users of the service might want to take a second look at the feature that tweets locations. It could pose some really dangerous privacy concerns and its better than Facebook for stalking people. Apparently it’s not about the url tweets Wayne, there are way more important issues behind the irritation.
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Bring Google Reader To Your Desktop With ReadAIR
Seems Adobe AIR apps are gaining ground around the web. Popular Twitter clients such as Twhirl and Spaz are already using the AIR platform. Not good enough? WebKut (review), a screen capture application, Alert Thingy, and more recently MySocial24/7, Friendfeed clients, are also on the platform. While it’s long overdue, it’s no surprise that popular RSS reader Google Reader has been ported over to the platform too!
Available for both Mac and Windows (sorry Linux users), ReadAIR aims to bring the best of Google Reader to your desktop. Logging in and syncing the app with my account was quick and easy. The only thing ReadAIR app seems to have going for itself is a nice clean design. You can star an item, mark everything is as read, add and remove both feeds and tags, and view shared and starred items. You can also set refresh rates for every 5, 10, 20, or 30 minutes or choose to never refresh. Still, ReadAIR doesn’t compare to opening Google Reader in my browser.
Issues
If your system is running slow, expect ReadAIR to give you numerous errors. I actually had to close Firefox, which wasn’t running high, in order to use the app. The app could be more useful if it automatically started downloading my feeds instead waiting for me to click on a folder before doing it. The load times can be pretty annoying. Also, I’m still searching for the "Share" button to share an item, which sucks major bullocks. The unread count does not automatically update once you’re done (which is irritating) and as Sarah Perez points out, there are no keyboard shortcuts for ReadAIR.
The display view for ReadAIR may annoy those that are comfortable with the way Google Reader allows you to view your feeds. I’m the user that only views updated items. I don’t want to see the feed otherwise (what’s the point?). This isn’t an option in ReadAIR, you see them all, and this could pose a serious problem if you have more than 200 feeds in GReader. Another annoying quirk is that the page may not properly display. Take a look at what I mean:
Not Ready For Primetime
There’s too much that’s missing and not enough innovation being brought to the table from ReadAIR for me to recommend it. Some of the most basic features in Google Reader are no where to be found and more recent GReader additions such as notes may never make it to ReadAIR. While it’s something to keep an eye on, right now ReadAIR is a bit of a disappointment to fans of Google Reader.
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Is It Necessary For A-listers To Get First Dibs?
When it comes to promoting a service or site, the "smartest" startups will contact the big names to get their start. This leaves a very wide gap open for the taking for smaller blogs. However, for all it’s worth, is it really necessary for A-listers to get first dibs?
A-List Benefits
There’s no denying or arguing about how beneficial it can be to get A-listers to use and talk about your product. TechCrunch can send you plenty of traffic. ReadWriteWeb will inspire great conversations and debates about your product on top of great traffic. If Scoble praises your product, expect plenty to give it a try. Lots of users, plenty of traffic, who can argue with that?
Current Trends
Some of the hottest products that I know of, were not discovered by A-listers first. In fact, the majority were probably discovered by Louis Gray before his current success. Let’s look at these services, shall we?
Friendfeed
Louis invited me to Friendfeed when I was a lot more unknown and so was Friendfeed. Now, Scoble can’t stop drooling over it. Friendfeed is all over the place now thanks to Louis.
Disqus
Steven Hodson of WinExtra introduced me to the Disqus commenting system back in March. I haven’t regretted the switch one bit and Disqus is spreading like wildfire! It’s definitely replacing a lot of standard commenting systems, especially on WordPress self-hosted blogs. And all this did not depend on the help of your usual suspects.
ReadBurner
Who’d I hear it from first? Louis.
RSSmeme
See ReadBurner.
See RSSmeme.
Still Want To Give It All To The A-Listers?
Pageviews are money. Users are money. I understand that. However, having a handful of talented bloggers with a small yet loyal following can be a lot more beneficial than the larger but fickle crowd of the "A-list". With that being said, here’s an interesting tweet:
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Visually Disqus’n : Disqus Integrates Seesmic
this is a guest post by (jeff)isageek who also has his own blog over at jeffisageek.net
Today Disqus, a community driven commenting service (say that 4 times fast), announced that it will be integrating video comments using video service Seesmic bringing another great feature to what is already an awesome service.
Why did Disqus decide to add video commenting?
Our main goal with Disqus has always been to enhance how people interact and participate on blogs. Video comments, while a relatively new concept, is something we’ve been hearing people chatter about recently. Enabling video conversation is not our focus, so we came together with our friends at Seesmic to make this happen.
So why does Disqus have video comments? We think it’s easy and fun — a different way to approach a blog discussion. Decide for yourself.
I think one aspect that is going to make using video comments a big hit with Disqus is one how easy it is to actually leave a comment - you press a red button, sign into your seesmic account, and then record. Secondly, check out how easily it integrates with your current non video comments and has a nice/simple/clean look. See below for an example of how it will look in your comment stream.
I think this is a great move by Disqus and Seesmic to integrate video comments into blogs everywhere. It’s another sign of how the social web continues to grow and produce “awesomesauce” results.
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Corvida is the blogger of SheGeeks. A gregarious 20 year old, in her spare time she reads, Twitters, and listens to a lot of music.
