Hopefully by now, most of you have already received your Google Wave invite. And chances are you are either enjoying Google Wave or still trying to figure out how it works. If you’re enjoying Google Wave right now, you might want to check out two available desktop client for Google Wave – Waver and Waveboard. These desktop clients allow  you to use Google Wave without needing to open a new browser window. And for a real-time communication tool, this is very important.

I’ve downloaded both clients on my MacBook Pro and come up with the following comparisons. Take note, Waveboard is currently for Mac OS only, while Waver runs on Linux, Windows and Mac.

Waver Google Wave Desktop Client

Waver is an Adobe AIR application that gets your Google Wave account and lets you create waves, updates existing waves  as well as reply to existing ones. It’s a single column interface that renders Google Wave using WebKit. Being a single column that it is, it also allows you to navigate through the various components of your Google Wave account including your Wave Inbox, Contacts, and existing Waves. It doesn’t open another windows though.

Good thing about Waver since it is using Adobe’s Javascript implementation is the fact that it renders Waves quickly. For a real-time communication that supposedly updates as fast as it could, this is very important. And Waver succeeds on this department.

Waver also works with bots and gadgets. Meaning you can use bots to automate tasks that you would normally do on Google Wave.

Remember, to run Waver you need to install Adobe AIR. Doing so will take some valuable space of your machine, so that’s just the low-down of using it.

Waveboard Google Wave Desktop Client for Mac

While Waver is as simple desktop solution for Google Wave, Waveboard takes it a little farther by introducing more features and functionality that will surely make your Google Wave experience a more pleasant one.

Waveboard presents you with four windows – Navigation, Contacts, Inbox and the Wave windows. These are the main components of Google Wave actually. It works like your usual email client, where you can have access to each of the menus quickly and easily.

Three features of Waveboard that makes it superior with Waver are – file drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts and notifications.

To enable “drag and drop” you need to run Google Gears first. Once this is setup you can upload files from your desktop into a Wave that you are currently editing. Participants of that Wave can immediately see  the files you’ve dragged into the wave.

As with other Mac applications, there are several keyboard shortcuts that you  can use on Waveboard.  Most of these Waveboard keyboard shortcuts are similar to the Mac Command + key functions.

Finally, Waveboard sends notifications when a new Wave you created or in which you are a participant has changed since the last time you logged in to your Wave account. If you’ve participated in many Waves or created several of them, you can easily monitor which have changed. But to make the notifications disappear you need to read the Waves or use the SPACE key if you don’t want to read the Waves.

Which is Better Waver or Waveboard

Much as I would like to say that Wabeboard is better, I could not because both desktop client for Google Wave serve their individual purposes and will cater to the preferences of different people. If you want a lightweight client you’d prefer Waver. But if Waver is too simple for you, you’d use Waveboard instead.

To make my Google Wave exploration useful, I decided to look around for Wave gadgets that I can use, and actually found a handful of them.   So here goes, 5 Google Wave Gadgets that you will most likely use.

Twitter

You knew this is will be my first useful gadget right? It should be, well at least for me. This gadget gives you your Twitter’s public timeline as a wavelet. Unfortunately, it does not allow you to post tweets, reply to conversation directly on Twitter. To activate this gadget just add tweety-wave@appspot.com to your contact list.  It will authenticate your Twitter account the first time you use it.

Amazon

This gadget lets you search for products on Amazon’s various product category. It’s the best looking Google Wave gadgets I’ve seen so far. And the Amazon bot works fast t00. To add this gadget, just add amazon-withwaves-com@appspot.com to your contact list.

Eliza

If got bored while exploring Google Wave or you’re contacts are not sending you waves, you might find Eliza useful. Yup, it’s the auto-chat bot who is also an auto-shrink. Common, talk to her if you must. Just don’t ask too many complicated questions. To add Eliza to Google Wave, just add elisarobot@appspot.com. Have fun!

Starify

This gadget lets you bookmark Waves which you can then later on list or delete. It uses the following commands – /star’, /list’, and /delete’. To add this gadget to Google Wave, just add starifybot@appspot.com. It could be useful if you’ve created many waves already.

Calcbot

This Wave gadget will come in handy whenever you need to do some simple calculations while in the middle of a conversation inside a wave.  Just add calcbot@appspot.com to your contact list and you’re good to go.

These are just some of the Google Wave gadgets currently available. Using these gadgets on your Google Wave account adds some excitement to Google Wave, especially if you don’t have too many contacts who are in the exclusive circle of early Google Wave users. If you’re not one of them and you want an invite, just shoot me an email with your gmail account and I’ll include you in my invitation list. I still have a couple of invites to throw out.

1. Mint.com- among the simplest of online financial managers, Mint lets you see snapshots of your financial habits from shopping trends to individual transactions. Mint gives you suggestions of how to save money based on your spending and allows users to easily set up text alerts for going over credit limits or when an account lowers to a specified amount. Mint allows you to get your balance via text message and offers investment management from your 401k to brokerage accounts.

2. Rudder.com- offers a savings widget, a spend meter and even a bill tracker for upcoming bills due. Rudder offers emails with your account information without your having to log in which is great for the traveler whose email goes to Blackberry. Rudder is set up to give users a quick outlook of their finances without having to log in to the website and focuses on keeping the process as simple as possible.

3. Buxfer.com- is a personal money tracker connected to your bank account and credit cards that can tell you not only how you’re spending your money but tracks IOUs with your friends or other businesses. Buxfer can tell you your account balance on the go or even let you report cash expenses via text message, twitter, facebook or a web application on your cell phone.

4. Money.Strands.com- formerly known as Expensr, Money Strands claims to make money management “fun and easy.” Money Strands allows you to set up a budget and track your progress toward your financial goals much like a work out program. Money Strands offers a recommendation engine for services from credit card offers to complimentary products. Money Strands offers a network of people in your financial situation to connect with to bounce ideas off of and give or share tips with.

5. BudgetPulse.com- free tool for tracking finances, budgeting and even scheduling online payments in advance. Categorizing and tagging your finances lets you create 3D graphs and charts to visualize your spending and income. BudgetPulse stands out because of advanced features like managing recurring transactions as well as allowing users to split transactions.

The Rotorblog team has no idea if the economy is on the right track (though we hope it is!). What we do know is that the fast-paced lifestyle of the 21st century in a shaky economic environment makes it imperative to keep track of your finances. A simple pen, pad and calculator no longer do the trick. Take advantage of some of the free tools listed above and you should be able to weather the storm.

Have you ever tried an online financial tracker? What was it like for you and do you still use it? Let us know in the comments below!

Honorable Mention:
MoneyTrackin

Let’s take a look at the top options in the free video editing software market.

1. Apple iMovie is highly acclaimed, especially by social networking video creators. iMovie comes with any new Mac purchased and is known as one of the simplest editors, designed especially for producing video quickly. iMovie lets users scan clips, isolate the desired portion and drop clips into order. Users no longer have to deal with rendering time, rather iMovie creates crossfades and titles instantly, and users can even send their final video directly to YouTube.

2. Microsoft Movie Maker which automatically comes on virtually all PCs, offers easy drag and drop editing and numerous add-ons to the software. Movie Maker is popular because of the many artistic and corrective options for video as well as a configurable interface. Movie Maker supports AVI/WMV input and is one of the few editors that can capture DV from a camcorder.

3. Video Spin is a free video editor download frequently compared to Movie Maker but is praised for its title editor and artistic effects. Video Spin allows users to instantly upload video to YouTube or Yahoo Video and functions completely on a drag and drop interface which is easy for a beginner yet advanced enough for the more tech savvy. There are add-on features that are available for a fee. The program is manufactured by Pinnacle Systems, creator of many different types of video software.

4. Wax is used as a free-standing app or as a plug-in for other video editors like Adobe Premiere. It can create 2D and 3D special effects like explosions and 3D text, and is known for its simple user interface. Wax is worth looking at because it allows users to output video in AVI, MPEG, WAV and even flash while some editors only output as AVI files. There are also neat features such as RotoMate which allows you to rotoscope/paint over video with fully keyframmable shapes and masks, Shatter, where you can create explosive effects and Particle Generator, where you can generate various natural particle effects like fire, smoke, and rain.

5. Zwei-Stein video editing offers a large library of special effects and transitions and has a superior cropping option. Zwei-Stein is known well for its ease of use and stability. It is not one of the more well known editors but is a simple option that is fast and doesn’t overuse computer memory. The download offers a 256 track video editor.

For the beginning editor or hobbyist, the free editors that come with new computers are often the superior option, but plug-ins are always a good supplement. Users should be watching for simple programs that are easy to use and the five above are just that!

What video editor do you use? With so many on the market, which is your favorite and which would you *not* recommend to others?

Tweetdeck- currently, the industry favorite is Tweetdeck not only because it syncs with an iPhone, but because it has grouping functions for people and search terms, all colors are customizable, and Tweetdeck is integrated with Facebook, yFrog, and even MySpace. New updates allow users to drag photos into the update bar without any download steps, URLs are automatically shortened, and language translation options are now built in. It is by far the most robust option on the market.

Seesmic- supports multiple Twitter accounts on the same screen and has amazing Facebook integration that lets you comment and “like” without having to visit Facebook. Seesmic allows groups of people and searches and offers unlimited saved searches. Seesmic is interesting because like Tweetdeck, it is constantly adding upgrades and improvements.

Destroy Twitter- this is a single account client that allows grouping for people or search words and is a simple, streamlined way to Twitter from your desktop and there are even themes available to download to customize your experience.

PeopleBrowsr- is a unique take on Twitter in that it offers the ability to export, get stats on groups, and even allows you to sort columns of users by number of followers or by their Twitter name. PeopleBrowsr integrates across multiple social networks allowing you to update many places by updating in one spot.

Tweetie for Mac- is a clean and simple, no fluff client that shows threaded conversations, lets users flip between multiple accounts, multiple services and allows for saved searches. Tweetie for Mac lets users post videos to yFrog and takes up very few resources on your computer.

Mac Lounge- like Tweetdeck, this client syncs with your iPhone. Mac Lounge is a simple, single column interface that allows saved searches and offers unique drag and drop categories to reorder.

Twhirl- although Seesmic Desktop has taken Twhirl’s place and it is no longer being innovated, it is a simple single column interface which color codes DMs, @ messages and user sent tweets, making it easy to understand for a beginner. Twhirl supports multiple accounts and integrates with FriendFeed, Seesmic and Identica and even allows users to save searches.

Twibble- is a single column interface that pulls multiple accounts into a single location so no toggling is necessary. It can be tricky, but hovering over a tweet gives users the options available, including which account to respond from. What’s interesting about Twibble is that your tweets can be filtered for keywords and the dgrag and drop photo upload feature is a timesaver.

Digsby- windows supported, Digsby pulls Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn updates of all of your friends together in one place so users see in one glance what is happening in all of their social networks simultaneously without visiting each site. What many people don’t know however is that Digsby features email and IM integration, making it a standout client.

Eventbox- supported by Mac, EventBox is innovative in that it pulls Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Reader, Reddit and Digg together in one place allowing information junkies to not only follow their social network contacts but to see in real time updates from across the blogosphere.

What tools do you use when you Twitter and which do you think is the best Twitter client?

Vi.sualize.us

Vi.sualize.us is amazing site with great community where you can see coolest pictures people consider valuable. It is very easy to browse across pictures you are interested in because image tags are always accessible. Check out Firefox extension which will make image bookmarking even easier.

Imagefave

Imagefave is very simple and clean, I think many will like the site just because of it’s ascetic look -images should grab all attention right? I like the related images next to the picture you are currently viewing – users can discover many interesting stuff there.

FFFFOUND!

Ffffound is probably the oldest site from these five we listed in this article. Large community that will always surprise with most amazing pictures laying somewhere deep in the sea of Internet. They have pretty nice iPhone app for quick access to the latest images.

WeHeartIt

WeHeartIt isn’t meant for images only, you can bookmark videos too. It also have related images next to the picture you are currently viewing which allows you do discover something new. Very simple made image bookmarking just with couple clicks.

Photoree

Photoree have a great concept – image bookmarking and recommendation engine, that let’s you sit back and enjoy images you wish to see. It is a great site for inspiration and enjoying good quality images.

Hope this will help you to find your favorite service to bookmark images. To receive more tips and service reviews remember to subscribe to our feed.

Card.ly

Perhaps the most Web 2.0-looking virtual business card on our list, Card.ly gives you a single page to display all of the assets of your online presence. Register for free, validate your email address, and begin adding social networks from a dropdown menu. Simply add your user name for each Website.

Sprinkle in the personal details you want to share, a thumbnail image and any additional links/feeds and you are on your way.

A series of skins give you a chance to stand out from the crowd.

Your Card.ly can be embedded on your Website, giving visitors easy access to a slick looking group of icons that link to all of your social network activity. You may also place a snippet of code that tells visitors of your vCard.

A premium account ($25 a year or $3 a month) gives you more skin options, zero ads, the ability to use your own domain name, unlimited RSS feeds on a page and a stat counter.

VIEW MY CARD.LY

Google Profile

Sharing the same full name as tens of thousands of other people
is both a blessing and a curse in the online world. It’s great if you’re looking to remain anonymous. But if you WANT to be found, you can easily be lost in the crowd.

If the latter applies to you, we recommend setting up a free Google Profile. Where a search of my name in Google previously turn up results on the 20th page, I have now secured a Page One result!

Much like an online business card, a Google profile is very simple. It includes an optional thumbnail image, a brief bio and links of your choosing. A nice feature is that people can contact you via e-mail without your email address being revealed.

Create a page using your existing Google Account.

VIEW MY GOOGLE PROFILE

Retaggr

Create an attractive Profile Card containing all of your online endeavors. With more than 180 social networks and online services to pull from, Retaggr is an impressive calling card.

Visitors choose how they would like to interact with you (i.e. – social network, email, bookmark profile). They can peruse your blogs, view your personal information, check out your blogs or explore assorted widgets.

Retaggr is a useful site, but not very visually stimulating (it’s text heavy). However, depending on your audience, simple can fit the bill.

An awesome feature is Retaggr’s ability to double as an email signature. You can embed the information from your page and list your Web presence on every email you send.

As of this blog post, Retaggr is offering their premium version for free. The upgrade gives you more fields, greater control over the look and an optional larger profile image.

VIEW MY RETAGGR PROFILE

DropCard

If you’re looking to send your contact details to any email via a brief Short Message Service (SMS) message, look no further than DropCard. The free service lets you create multiple contact profiles and then send your data to any new contact.

Pay plans, which are several dollars a month, give you access to multiple profiles and higher “drop” limits.

One plus here is that the system will let you know who opened your Drop Card and what information they viewed.

Contxts

Simple and sweet. That’s the best way to describe Contxtxs, a free service that lets people access your contact information via text message.

Enter the information you want to share (you are limited to 140 characters) and include links to the major social networks you are part of, and people you invite can retrieve the info via SMS.

For example, to access my information, text Jobacle to 50500.

You receive a text message when your information is requested. The phone number of the person requesting your info can be viewed on Contxts.com.

iPhone Honorable Mention:

rmbrME
bump

And the winner is? Buying your own domain name. Despite the plethora of tools out there designed to put all of your Web warez in one place, nothing gives you control and customization options like owning your own domain. With dirt cheap hosting prices and simple Web building tools, there’s really no excuse not to spend a few bucks a year to represent yourself in the best light possible.

PANDORA

It’s like they know me! Enter the name of a band, song or genre , and Pandora’s intuitive system will play tunes that have similar musical qualities to your selection.

Registering entitles you to 100 “stations” and the ability to bookmark songs or people. Album art and a blurb about the band accompanies each track.

The recently launched Pandora One offers higher audio quality, a five-hour timeout period (if you don’t interact with Pandora, the system will auto-pause) and no ads for $36 a year. The free version peppers in audio and video ads, and while they definitely interrupt the flow, they are certainly not deal breakers.

BLIP.FM

Designed to allow anyone to be a virtual DJ, Blip.fm allows you to tell the world what you are listening to. A blip creates a short URL to a song that is accompanied with a brief message. This information is broadcast to your friends or shared on Twitter.

Even though I’m not big on ‘blipping,’ I do use the site to pull up songs I want to listen to. A preview button next to each track will actually enable a song to play all the way through. The availability of tracks is a bit unpredictable, as the system pulls songs from a variiety of servers and Websites – including YouTube.

This site is for folks who want to impress their friends by showing off their DJ skills or for people who want access to a song in a flash.

MUSICOVERY

As the name implies, this is another music recommendation engine. What’s unique is that playlists can be built based on your mood. Feeling like a dark mix from the 70s or an energetic mix from the 90s? Use the filtering system to customize your music. Free users can ban songs they hate and enjoy lo-fo streams.

A graphical interface based on Liveplasma technology. The Liveplasma technology creates a graphical map of possible tastes, with songs most likely to please the user appearing closer to the current song on the visual map than songs less similar.

LAST.FM

Last.fm recommends music, videos and concerts based on what you listen to. The system registers every track that you play and stores that information behind your profile. It can then recommend similar songs – and people who have alike taste.

Music can be recommended o a friend, tagged or commented on, all impacting the song’s importance on the site. The more positively a track is received the higher up the Last.fm charts it moves, resulting in greater exposure. With Last.fm, you have the power to help decide what’s hot and what’s not.

DIZZLER

Dizzler, the self-proclaimed media tornado is a search engine for music tracks, music videos and song lyrics. Type in what you are looking for and you will be presented with an opportunity to stream the song for free, add it to your playlist (free registration required), view lyrics, share with a friend or (via Thumbplay) purchase the ringtone. The information comes from public searches but all URLs are encrypted to protect the identity of the content source.

The site also hosts chat rooms devoted to your favorite artists as well as links to news, photos and tour dates.

Spotify.com – Listen for free (ad-supported), purchase a Day Pass (24 hours ad free) or subscribe for the Premium program.

MP3.com – Listen online or purchase tunes for download. My favorite feature is the “Random Artist” button on the top toolbar.

Lala.com – All the music you could ever want, playable in a web browser. Over 7 millions songs, the first 25 for free.

Slacker.com – Personalized radio service featuring over 100 expert-programmed genre stations and the ability to create your own.

Where are you listening to music on the Web?

Tweecious

This addon is great for those users who also use Delicious to organize their bookmarks. Tweecious will look for resources you shared on twitter and automatically add them to your Delicious bookmarks.

TwitThat

Very helpful plugin to share stuff you are browsing to twitter. Sharing interesting page is just one click away.

Twitter Toolbar

Firefox toolbar that include all necessary links to main twitter functions like search, direct messages, replays and more. You can also type your tweet and hit enter to publish it without leaving page you browse.

Tweet Reveal

Simple but very useful addon that will display Twitter button in address bar if on the current page will be mentioned some Twitter account. It helps you discover great Twitter users to follow and communicate.

Twitty Tunes

This addon may be interesting for music lovers – you can easily share current playing song to twitter, but that’s not all – you can share also videos and anything else your friends will appreciate.

Tw-autocomplete

Helpful little addon that will auto-complete twitter usernames when you want to replay or mention some users when tweeting.

Twitzer

I bet you have thought that it would be cool to post longer tweets – sometimes 140 symbols isn’t enough. Twitzer offers solution – it will crop your text if it is longer and your followers will be able to read everything you got for them via the URL.

BTW, if you are thinking how to stay updated on our latest posts – feel free to follow us on Twitter!

Widgetbox

All you need to create a widget is a feed of content. This can be pulled from your blog, YouTube, Flickr, twitter and others.

A Blidget allows you to turn your blog into an instant widget that can be installed by other Website owners. For example, if you have a blog on career advice, you can create a Blidget and hope that other employment-related Websites will display your content.

There are thousands of widgets available for installation. These can be found via search or by Tab.

A Pro account, which costs only a few cents a day, gives the widget creator greater control. You can add logos, incorporate tabs and remove the WidgetBox identifier from the bottom of the widget.

Wowzio

Gallery Widget finds photos on your blog and places thumbnails into a widget; the Panoramic Slideshow does the same as above but in a one-at-a-time format; the Live Activity Widget will show you your blog’s latest visitors, including where they are from (i.e. – U.S., United Kingdom, etc.); the Tag Cloud Widget will extract tags from your blog and display them for visitors.

There is also a Feed Content Widget which will show the 50 most recent blog posts.

Wowzio is getting close to over 2 million widgets served.

The site hands out 25 invites every 24 hours by email, so if you are interested, click here.

Dijit

A Dijit is a Web-based widget that lets you share, post and broadcast videos, music, and pictures across any social network. That means you can create a Dijit with your own original videos, music, and pictures and post it on your MySpace, Facebook, MyYearBook or Livejournal page or any social page you like. Dijit gives you the option to view your pictures as a slideshow as well as allow people to download your videos, music, and picture files to their mobile phone.

Produle

Flash-based and sexy! This Web-based visual tool allows you to create promotional widgets for your brand or Website. This is a great way to incorporate Flash on your blog/site – even if you are a clueless coder. Authoring tools include a drag-n-drop workspace and a visual WYSIWYG editor. Live data can be integrated and the site makes it painless to distribute your creations virally.

A free account gives you five widgets without tracking. You’ll pay $29+ a month for extra storage, support and additional features.

Widgets are fully-hosted, meaning you cannot download them.

Grazr

Billing itself as “the original feed widget,” Grazr is about as simple as it gets. No registration. No login. Just enter the URL of any feed, choose your customizations and go!

Uses include viewing pictures from Flickr, playing podcasts and MP3 files within the widget and watching videos from YouTube within the widget.

The widget runs in a Web browser, so there is no download or installation required. All you need is a browser with Javascript enabled. Feeds must be less than 512K in size.

Widgets are a wonderful way to allow people who are not technologically-inclined to add an extra layer of content to their Website. They can not only make your site look better, but they can increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site, and that’s a number that potential advertisers will want to know.

Passpack

Passpack offers centralized storage for personal passwords, logins and links. You can even store private data. The site is accessible from anywhere there is an Internet connection. A 1-click login lets you enter your favorite sites without having to type.

Keywallet

Browser independent and easy to use, Keywallet works with all form types and Windows operating systems in order to encrypt your private data. There is no spyware or ad-ware and there are cool skins that can be added to give the program a unique look. An extra layer of protection has the program capture the key strokes of your login information. After that, you simpy drag and drop your user name and password to fill out any login boxes or forms.

Clipperz

With nothing to install, Clipperz is a password manager that offers an extra layer of encryption, meaning that the bad guys can’t access your login credentials. The site encourages you to use their service for all sensitive data – not just the stuff that’s found online. (i.e. – Security system password, secret notes, etc.) There is also an offline version which allows you to access the system sans Web connection. A Firefox app is available as well.

MySafeBox

MySafeBox operates on the premise that you should never trust anyone with your passwords – not even them. That is why rather than store your password, the site encourages you to store your “secret question” or password hint data. Stored info is placed into an encrypted database and is not seen by any other human eyes. Watch a demo.

Mitto

Mitto is Latin for “to send.” While we’re not 100% sure if that’s a great name for a free password manager, we do like the simple/free service. You can access your passwords securely from any computer, organize them with tags, and securely share them with trusted friends.

Handy Password

Part password manager, part form filler, part bookmark manager, Handy Password is designed to improve the quality of your Web browsing experience. the add-on can be hooked into IE or Firefox and will ensure that you never forget a password again. For under $30 (there is a free trial), you can download the USB Flash drive manager which includes a random password generator.

RoboForm

With over 22 million downloads, Roboform touts itself as the “#1 downloaded password manager.” The program allows you to create a single master password, meaning that even if you have 20 different sets of login information, you only need to remember a single password. Powerful AES encryption securely stores your user names, passwords and other information stored on your computer.

I know many people reading this blog are well under 40. But let me ask…do you find your memory getting worse with each passing year? I do! I’m lucky I remember the birthdays of those I love, let alone my login information for some random social networking iste I signed up for 3 years ago.

When someone truly know who you are, they better understand the things you will enjoy – way better than a ‘reviewer’ ever could.

When it comes to music and movies, Filtersage asks a simple question: What does it remind you of?

Relying on groups of strangers who have similar interests, the site aims to introduce you to movies and music from yesterday that are similar to your faves from today.

For example here are two of my own recommendations…

If you like the Goo Goo Dolls…try The Replacements.
If you dig There’s About Mary…watch The Sweetest Thing.

When you connect arts from the past with the present, you can truly appreciate how an artist was influenced along the way.

Filtersage is fun because you can add your two cents to existing pairings or create your own.

This is a great way to filter through new releases to see if an album or movie is worth your time. After all, with so much media floating around out there, you HAVE to be somewhat selective.

Rounding out the site experience are trailers and music videos, enabling you to check certain media out on the spot.

To get started you teach Hunch about the things you like so that the engine can help you answer questions you’re dying to know the answers to.

The queries to help build your profile range from which celeb you find hot to what kind of French fries you prefer to how you like your sandwich cut (horizontally or diagonally).

Even the seemingly serious questions are written and presented in a light and fluffy fashion, encouraging the user to answer. After all, the more questions you answer, the better the future results. Maybe that’s why I finally pulled myself away after answering 126 questions.

I’m not sure if Hunch uses the collected data to target ads your way, but they sure could draw some seriously bankable conclusions.

After Hunch learns about you (a minimum of 10 answered questions) you are ready to get the answers to the questions on your mind. For example, ‘Where should I go on vacation?’ or “What cell phone should I buy?’ or ‘Which Lord of the Rings character am I?’ Each core question is followed by several sub-questions that will help the system choose an answer.

Now God as my witness…when I went to find an answer to ‘Where should I go on vacation?’ – the system generated an answer that was EXACTLY where I was looking to book a trip earlier in the day. Perhaps it was a fluke, but color me impressed!

Hunch is sort of like Yahoo Answers without all of the idiots. The site was actually co-founded by one of the brains behind Flickr and the aforementioned Yahoo Answers!,

This site has some serious potential. And that’s a question we don’t even need to ask!
Here’s my profile.

Offering the hottest luxury accessories and coolest looks from last season, ideeli is a members-only shopping community. What sets the Web site apart from the pack is that it operates on an invite-only premise, meaning you need to be asked me an existing member to join. Alternatively, there are promo codes floating around the Web.

The site only offers high-end items, so if you’re looking for a pair of Keds or a Nike t-shirt, you’re not going to find it here.

“Insider” prices, early access to the newest products, hot European brands not available in the U.S., and lots of giveaways.

The site offers more than fashion. Access to fashion shows and entry to sold-out concerts are also opportunities that members are presented with.

One way to look at this site is sort of like the Woot of fashion. Every day a new “online shopping event” is unveiled – with members getting the ability to get a sneak peek.

Upon registration you are defaulted into “second row,” with the option to “upgrade to first row” for around $7 a month. The fee will give you access to special sales and privilege you to a one-hour shopping advantage over other members.

For every friend you invite, you receive a $25 credit after they make their first purchase.

ideeli is for the Sex and the City crowd who want to rock big-time style while staying somewhat financially responsible.

If you enjoy reading and writing fiction, in the form of short stories, Ficly.com is a site for you.

This good looking site allows registered users to post brief stories – no more that 1,024 characters. Community members can then rate the story and even write a prequel or a sequel. Stories can be tagged by both sides.

Less than two weeks into beta and this site shows serious promise.

Ficly allows you to sign in with Google, Yahoo, Facebook or OpenID, so there’s no need to remember a new set of login requirements.

There are also writing challenges. For example, the current contest:

Write a segment or two detailing a measure taken by society to restrain the creative and intelligent. Make it outlandish, make it subtle; tell it from a general perspective, or tell it from a personal point of view. Do whatever works.

Each story gets its own feed so you can follow the activity as writers from around the world build on each others work.

Here’s a quick example that I posted just to give you an idea.

A Plastic Pause

It’s not the best sample because what I posted is simple an excerpt from a larger story. The site works best when you post a complete story that is approximately 1,000 characters long.

And you don’t even have to visit the Twitter site from time to time. The moment you login to Tweetlister using your Twitter credentials, you can stop visiting Twitter from then on. But that is of course if you use Twitter for the sole purpose of advertising your real estate holdings.

But what exactly does TweetLister does that Twitter is not doing? For one, TweetLister is definitely less noisy than Twitter. But basically it turns your listing information into Tweets, ready for posting. When those Tweets are posted depends on the schedule you set. Once your listings are already running, TweetLister tracks clicks and collect leads and allows you to even export the report in Excel format.

Best of all, TweetLister is a free service. It doesn’t matter whether you are a professional real estate agent or a simple real estate owner looking to find prospective buyers for your properties, you can use TweetLister.

Once you’ve connected your Facebook and Digg accounts, you would immediately be brought to your Digg account to tweak some settings that would determine how the integrated service would behave.

You can also opt to auto-follow your Facebook friends or invite them to your Digg from your Facebook Connect settings page.

But unlike other services that use Facebook Connect, Digg will not automatically share stories you Dugg to your Facebook profile. Digg will always ask you first if you want to share the Digg items, comment or submit. But this will be temporary since Digg is planning to roll out a feature later on that will automatically publish all your Digg activities to your Facebook profile. But I’m hoping that the feature stays as this will minimize the noise that users might bring to Facebook.

Still, the integration is a neat feature and I can see Digg benefitting more from this since Facebook users who are not into social bookmarking might find Digg interesting and opt to create their own Digg accounts.

Here’s a short video showing Facebook Connect in Action:

Digg: Facebook Connect Demo from Digg Meetups on Vimeo.

Aside from real-updating, the new Friendfeed also has the following features:

• Enhanced share box – choose whom to share items with. Post something to multiple feeds or to just a few friends. You can also now direct message anyone who’s subscribed to you.
• Saved searches – advanced search options for creating filters for easy access to the friends and topics you care most about. Filtering options such as seeing only entries that have certain keywords or entries with a certain number of likes or comments.
• Friendfeed by Email – receive updates on your email as well as post updates via email. Post new items to your FriendFeed by emailing share@friendfeed.com. Post to groups by emailing groupname@friendfeed.com, and send direct message to your friends by emailing username@friendfeed.com.

And some more new features which you can discover if you keep on using Friendfeed.

But if you’re one of those users who got a taste of the new Friendfeed interface during the beta test page, how do you like it so far? Or you don’t?

As it is, Windows Live is already a robust online application with various features that enhances your overall Windows Live activities. But adding more funfare of course is the fact that you can now integrate all your activities from other online services to your Windows Live Profile.

Specifically, here are the key features and enhancements that Windows Live Profile just rolled out:

• Add your online activities in 20 websites including Facebook, Flickr and more
• Import contacts from other sites using Profile Connect
• Improved people search on Windows Live
• Photo Tagging
• RSS feeds are now easier to find for blogs and lists
• On Windows Live Home, you can now update your personal message inline, without going to a separate message editing page.

Start updating your Windows Live Profile now.