Scopetech

We’re taking a look at Wixi, which has been gaining a lot of attention recently.

What is it?

Wixi is sort of like a WebOS, what sites like MyBooo and Jooce are trying to be.

How does it work?

After logging in, users are taken to their own “desktop” if you want to call it that. The long and short of it is that it’s pretty much a virtual desktop through your browser. You can choose a wallpaper, create folders, upload music and pictures, etc.

You can check out other people’s Wixi page, who are your friends, and copy their files to your page if you want. To get a decent idea of it, you’ll definitely have to try it out yourself. If you don’t see a need for an Operating System inside your browser you probably don’t need one. Sites like these seem to be more confusing than anything.

While the use of these sites is to allow you to access your data anywhere, having to figure out a whole different WebOS may not be too appetizing to some, especially when you can use a simplified site like box.net to store your files online if needed. With that said, if you think the WebOS is something you might be interested in, I’d suggest checking out Jooce, which we’ll take a look at more in the future. It has a bit more polish. For example, right clicking with Jooce allows you to perform desktop-like actions, Wixi does not. Maybe when Wixi launches in December we’ll see changes, but so far in the WebOS race Jooce may come out on top. That’s not to say I can’t see people getting into Wixi more - they have their own vibes to them and using Wixi or Jooce may be akin to using Opera or Firefox.

Webcosmo is a craigslist competitor developed by a single person using ASP .NET. Posting classifieds is 100% free and features just about any country or state in the United States you could think about, with tons of areas to post in. If you’ve been looking for a site other than craigslist to post classifieds, Web Cosmo may be an interesting alternative to try out, given most other classified sites usually have some cost attached.

What is it about digg that makes me want to stay? It has to be that it’s the first site of its kind (you can’t consider del.icio.us like it) that has me stuck on it. Or maybe it’s the Kevin Rose effect. Who doesn’t like Kevin? Especially after the whole TechTV thing that some people won’t let go, not that it’s a bad thing.

Thoof is a digg-clone that makes me scratch my head. It’s a site where, get this, people submit stories but it’s better than digg because it avoids the whole “angry mob” effect controlling what gets on the front page. So, I’m guessing that’s a spin on “users vote for what they want” and instead they have no real say, or maybe anything that is submitted goes to the front page. Whatever their whole shtick is - the bottom line is the site doesn’t make me want to leave digg. Why?

1. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of content. Chalk it up as a “clean” interface or a clear indication that nobody uses this site.

2.  No categories, just tags. Wait, so how do I just get entertainment stories? What about world news? This is one time when tags to way more harm than good. If digg had tags instead of categories it would be chaotic. Digg, even without tags, allows you to really get news on the topics you care about, customizing your experience to show just what you want. No categories categorically blows.

3. Stories constantly loading. What is it that when I go to the site and scroll down it’s still loading more stories? Pretty annoying “feature” of the Web 2.0 generation.

There is no real incentive to use the site. I have no real thought provoking analysis to add, it pretty much is uninspiring.

Global Grind is a “custom web 2.0 home page solution for the hip hop generation.” What it really is, is taking one feature out of Netvibes, namely, making a customized page and turning it into a full-fledged website. We’ve seen the same sort of thing with Wevent - making a full website out of something someone else does. For some reason I also want to say it’s done better.

Maybe their target audience are those people who want to use something but netvibes, but rather the words “global” and/or “grind” be in the URL they have to go to, to get to the site. Long story short, it’s a Netvibes clone and considering you have the Netvibes Universe, you’re probably better off going with Netvibes.

We’ve looked at Contrastream in the past, a site helping people find better independent music, and liked it. News coming in is that the site now has updates worth taking note of.

Audio Previews - Now when looking at albums to vote on, you can get a preview of the music, something the site should have launched with.

Updated profiles - Users can now message each other. A standard feature of any social network now.

Revamped New Release Section.

To see all the new features, check out the site’s blog which has the rundown on all the changes.

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Sure, digg has been trodden upon by some and there may even be a general consensus that digg comments leave something to be desired when compared to comments on Slashdot, but if it’s one thing I have to hand over to the digg commenters, they know when something is not their own as was the case with this story on FeedHub which we’ll take a look on this blog most likely. It didn’t really occur to me, but the story seemed to have been gamed. Gaming is essentially when you get a lot of people to digg a story, making it reach to the front page through some sort of compensation to the people or because the same people have some vested interest in the story. While it’s uncertain if the story really has really been gamed, there is certainly a difference in the way the comments are put across that makes you suspicious.

Of course, we have to think about gaming in general. There really isn’t a problem with asking your friends to digg a story now, is there? But when money isinvolved there is a definite difference. It’s an issue I am sure the digg team has to deal with and look at seriously.

iMedix is a simple site for people who want to know more about medical conditions. If you want to know about anything from ADHD to Vertigo, you’re bound to find someone who can help you with what you want to know. The site seems to be very much along the lines of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” in that, there isn’t exactly any “knowledge base” - you make a profile and privately contact people based on what you are trying to get information on.

So, as I log into the site and want to find out about Vertigo, I’ll see a list of people who are interested in that particular topic and are willing to take your questions. You’ll see if they are online or not. If the user you want to speak with is not online, you can send them a message, but if they are you can do a chat with them right there and then. Very nice and useful.

My one issue with the site is that going from one person to the other may become tedious. If there was an option to talk to multiple people on at the same time it would be much more helpful. Overall it’s actually a pretty useful site, though it could be even more useful if there was a knowledge base on medical conditions as other sites like wrongdiagnosis have.

I was overall impressed with the site. The functionality and design as well as the aim of the site are great. Anyone wanting invites can leave a comment.

I wanted to give a nice long, detailed look at Wevent but truth be told, I don’t think it’s worth your time. I wanted to like it, as I would anything I take a look at, but logging into my Beta account I couldn’t really tell where I had to go or what to do. Not a good sign. Luckily there’s a movie on the main page anyone can look at that will show you exactly what the site is about, how to use it, etc. While reading what the site is for, basically a social network for friends to share info and pictures on parties, etc, I couldn’t help but think that Facebook would be a much better use of one’s time considering what you can do with events, pictures, communicating with friends and so much more outside of parties/events.

That feeling was justified when I saw their implementation of the tagging feature that Facebook has.

Save yourself the time and get yourself a Facebook account if you really want to share pictures and other info with friends on events.

‘Now Play It‘ is a great new way for musicians to learn their favourite songs online at a low cost price. The site features over 300 exclusive videos of real artists using great teaching methods in order to help you learn their songs correctly.

There are 3 different types of tutorials, each one to suit the level on which you wish to learn. ‘Full’ tutorials last around 15 minutes and cost £3.99 whilst the ‘Lite’ tutorials last around 3 to 6 minutes costing just £1.99. Videos are encoded in WMV and MPEG4 so they’ll work seamlessly with your iPod and iTunes. With everything from KT Tunstall herself, to Blur, David Bowie, Starsailor, Coldplay and Supergrass, this really is a site worth checking out.

Fairtilizer is a new music site which wants to allow its users to be able to discover new music, create their own playlists, download free tracks, subscribe to artists and labels and “connect with artists, labels and people that care about music”. Anyone can submit a track into the system and according to the site, submitted tracks will go into a “buffer zone” where the songs can either be approved or dismissed depending on if the uploader has actual rights to the song. The site’s screening process should deal with any songs that may be uploaded illegally. What’s good about the site is that users can get free tracks provided labels offer them for free download but it seems only smaller labels would do such a thing. There is also the option to have songs as stream-only.

Playing with the site I am trying to figure out why people would use it instead of Myspace. One reason might be because of the nice flash player that allows you to take tracks and embed them on a site or blog. With Myspace, tracks are usually stream-only from major labels and users typically cannot embed the songs anywhere outside Myspace, if at all. Myspace users also have the option to sell tracks, something I have not seen with Fairtilizer, though tracks that are available for download will not have any sort of DRM. Sadly, I found the site to be very confusing.

Submitted tracks go to the “Upcoming” section where tracks with the most support go into the “Charting” section. What is unclear is what “support” for a track means, number of listens or the number of “votes” as denoted by a heart button to the right of the “Upcoming” and “Charting” sections of the site? Fairtilizer almost seems like it could be a competitor to Contrastream with the digg-like interface it has but instead of simply underground artists, Fairtilizer wants to involve big record labels which might be able to work provided they get the kinks out and explain why people wouldn’t just use Myspace instead.

The ability to make playlists from music on the site, embed them on a blog and pop out the player is a very nice feature though. The site is still not open to the public so we can assume many changes need to take place but for me it was not as appealing to look at as was the case with Contrastream. Both sites have aspects that could go well together. We will be sure to look out for any updates to Fairtilizer and we have 5 invites to the site. Leave a comment and we’ll hook you up.