Filed under: Cool tools, Internet Tools, Open Source, Beta Beat

The concept of a single-site browser or site-specific browser (SSB, either way) is simple: give me a window with one website in it, preferably a desktop application replacement like Gmail, RTM, Basecamp or Zoho, and let that window behave like a regular application with its own Dock icon, notifications, etc. If you're spending a lot of your time on a particular site, this can simplify your life quite a bit; if you're mixing up GTD with ADD (as so many of us seem to be), an SSB can ...

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Dexim MHub mixes up an iPod dock with a USB hub originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 16:40:00 ...

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Desktops, Gaming, Hardware, iTS, Rumors, Software, iTunes, App Store

There’s always an urge to declare a major new player in search as a “Google killer” because of its unique approach to the space, its celebrated founding team, or copious amounts of industry hype.

Wolfram Alpha has a bit of all of these elements working for it, though it’s significantly different than other recent attempts to dethrone Google, such as Cuil, which fell flat on its face on launch day, or Powerset, which was acquired by Microsoft before ever really getting a chance to prove itself as a commercially viable product.

The first key thing to be aware ...

The realm of entrepreneurship and venture capital has been changing in recent years. While many Web entrepreneurs during the late 1990s and mid 2000s were able raise millions in venture capital to fund their startup, it’s not so easy today. With a down economy and tighter budgets, even venture capital has had to innovate.

This is where SproutBox comes into play. Instead of offering cash in return for an equity stake in a startup, SproutBox is offering programming, business development, accounting, and HR services equivalent to $250,000. Is Sproutbox the future of venture capital? We can’t say ...

Gmail was globally down for about 20 minutes this morning. It has suffered a longer outage in February and then again in March, and each time I’ve used Twitter, not Google Search, to find out whether the problem is on my end only or whether it’s affecting everyone.

And, sure enough, Twitter is abuzz about Gmail today, which is already a trending topic. But, as always, it’s impossible to get any additional information - except for the simple “Gmail is down” from the hundreds of tweets that keep piling every minute. Twitter search is great for finding out ...

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: MatterMeter

Quick Pitch: MatterMeter.com is the world’s first social opinion network.

Genius Idea: There are plenty of ways to measure influence, especially in social media – number of connections, number of blog subscribers, Twitter followers, etc, but MatterMeter really gets to the heart of the issue with the question it poses to users: “If [insert person ...

Ever since Google acquired FeedBurner, complaints from bloggers have been plentiful, both in terms of lagging functionality and subpar ad revenue as Google has transitioned the product to AdSense for Feeds.

Earlier this year, the FeedBurner team responded to much of this criticism in an in-depth interview with Mashable, offering some explanation of publisher issues and providing guidance as to what can be expected from the product going forward.

This week, they’ve started testing new ad units with select publishers in hopes of increasing revenue. As opposed to a single graphical ad attached to a story within the feed ...

Like a lot of BlackBerry users, I have TwitterBerry for keeping up with Twitter and Facebook’s native BlackBerry application for checking my friends’ statuses, uploading photos, and making wall posts on the social network.

While both of these applications are fairly good at keeping up with these two sites from your mobile, what I’ve longed for is an application that combines both in one interface – much like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop do on the desktop. Enter SocialScope, a new BlackBerry application (in private beta) that looks to deliver this, and does a fairly impressive job.

Twitter and Facebook ...

Filed under: Misc ...

Not sure what move to add to your Netflix queue next? The DVD rental company has updated its recomendation engine in an effort to serve up better movie suggestions.

"We're pleased to announce that we have improved the way we predict the movies you're going to love," Netflix wrote in a blog post. "We've deployed a new algorithm that allows us to make more accurate guesses at how much our members will enjoy each movie in our the vast Netflix catalog."

The changes are the brainchild of Netflix Prize contestants, an ongoing contest intended to improve movie ...