Ning Launches Persistent Chat

Ning has just announced a major series of updates - taking their white-label social networking platform even further ahead of the competition. Today they launched an all new persistent chat service, new music, video and photo players and a slick, simple site search.

All this should help the Marc Adreessen venture power to around a million networks running across the Ning platform with between them more than 20 million users. That does though mean that the average Ning network has only 20 members. Probably a similar profile to the average blogger site.

The big question is what next for Ning? Perhaps VOIP telephony services as well as a greater drive to enhance their developer community. And what about a merger with Six Apart or an outright sale to Google? Watch this space.

Skype To Go Gets a Boost

Skype has just announced an extension (Yah!) to Skype To Go which allows users to make dead cheap calls via their Skype To Go number to any other landline or mobile phone. Lets hope this works better than Skype's core free pc-to-pc service which tends to bounce around like a yoyo.

And maybe they're feeling the heat from Swedish pin-up cheap mobile-to-mobile VOIP player Rebtel - now these dudes we dig. Check em out!

tumblr - A New Spin on Blogging

And who said Silicon Alley was dead? Life according to tumblr - who just raised a few million dollars - looks pretty good. They have a Web 2.0 app which is a mix between Blogger and Twitter and seems to be taking off. 

If you can't be shagged to write a whole blog and feel that Twitter is too short - then tumblr's for you. You can also have your cake and eat it cos you can bang on longer at Typepad/Wordpess/Blogger and RSS it into your tumblr page - while simultaneously zapping your tumblr feeds off to Twitter.

It looks like tumblr want to position themselves as the blog/tweet/posting hub for your life. If they add universal IM as well - they could be onto one. Oh and check mother ship's tumblr page - click this link.

Thisadwillchangeyourlife.com Does Personal Web Ads

Here's one for those of you seeking 15 minutes (or is it seconds) of fame. A Brit tech company with Web 2.0 aspirations and the brand challenged name of thisadwillchangeyourlife.com has created a neat, and cheap way (fiver a month) to run personal ads promoting yourself, your blog, or anything else yours.

So for those of you with a healthy ego, some spare beer/spritzer money and a knack for writing snappy ad copy - this ones for you. Oh, and let us know how your ads do. Cos these guys may even be worth watching.

Popjam Gives lol

Popjam.com has just gone live - its a Web 2.0 lol site. I.e. load a funny post, get rated and follow the rankings to see who's the funniest dude in tinsel town. A kind of virtual Euro song contest (except its global) for laughs.

And there's some cool folk behind it. Sign up and enjoy. Another notch for Brit tech? Let's see.

iPhone Feels the Heat

Look out iPhone! The competition is finally hotting up in the smartphone market. At the annual mobile shindig in Barcelona HTC, Microsoft and Google each made key announcements that point to iPhone's technical lead finally narrowing.

Vodafone has just landed an exclusive for the all new HTC Magic running Android - which for the increasing number of consumers and small businesses using Gmail and Google Apps looks the way to go - meanwhile Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 6.5 and finally announced their app store proving they too they have caught up.

Lastly the LG Arena touted a nex gen screen with cube and elastic features - all shifting the spotlight to Apple this summer as they launch the iPhone 3.0. They had better re-invent the smartphone once again.

Facebook Frenzy over User Content Rights

It's time to wade into the Facebook privacy debate. Because you see it matters little what Facebook's legals say or don't say - what matters is perception. And if Facebook come over as a privacy/personal content abuser they will lose the battle longer term. 

Users use Facebook because they trust that Facebook own the platform but all their content belongs exclusively to them. Like with a phone company, we utilize their network, but do not expect them ever to sell recordings of our conversations.

So Facebook had better be careful, lest the next wave of social networks win our hearts and copy souls with greater security and 100% privacy and copyright protection guarantees. So sort it fast Zuckerbeck and end the debate!

Masabi Does Mobile - Securely

Here's another cool UK mobile software company - Masabi. They do a few things mobile software and all very securely - apparently. So with hot security comes cool mobile ticketing apps, gaming apps and more. Maybe they could even help develop mobile banking to the next level...

They'll be at Barcelona next week and look worth a drop by. Scoot.

Amazon's Kindle Sparks Text-to-Speech Battle

Amazon has only just launched Kindle 2.0 and its already creating a stink. Apparently its cool new text-to-speech feature is upsetting a few publishers!

The Author's Guild, an advocacy group for writers is insisting that 'they don't have the right to read a book out loud. That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.' Which is mumbo jumbo for publishers wanting to charge more for books sold on e-readers with text-to-speech features.

Come on! So what about all of us that read out loud. Ooops - I guess that cat's out of the bag.

Jobopz.com Pioneers Social Recruitment

For those of you looking for work here's a new Web 2.0 concept - social recruitment - at Jobopz.com. The site acts as one massive, virtual job/careers fair. Companies and recruitment professionals set up virtual stands (profiles) of themselves and jobseekers go to check them out, promote themselves, network and generally build relationships. There's also a social media dimension where members can share tips and tricks, get neat tools to enhance their job search, including training videos and more.

Jobopz seems to have been born from the premise that employee loyalty spans have shortened to the extent that most people need to more actively market and develop their careers (and themselves). Apparently this includes regularly networking with recruitment folk, prospective employers and even other like minded jobseekers who we might one day partner with on a new business project or venture! So check it out - go to Jobopz.com.

blur Group Launch New Website

blur Group, the new kind of Intellectual Property conglomerate that mushroomed out of London, has launched a new Website. And its kinda cool. It takes a slice out of Apple's coverflow copy book.

Also, take a look at their nex gen brand - its abstract! We are though a little biased given that blur Group is our mother-ship. Check it out - go to blurgroup.com.

Mobile Davos and Dell Smartphones

The world seems to be going mobile all at the same time. Yo, catch up dudes. Davos saw a session of the great and good from the Internet and software industries banging on about how mobile is the future - Yaargh! Sadly it revealed more about just how little they understand the cellphone universe than anything else.

And now it seems Dell-desperately-trying-to-become-cool- again is about to peg its future growth on flogging smartphones. Well they can't do worse than their past attempts at the PDA market - can they?