Novell explained on its website, "With Novell Pulse, people continents apart can work together in real-time, sharing and co-browsing information or creating or editing a document.  Individuals can also manage content overload by choosing people and topics to follow and stashing files – both native and office type – along with their related groups and conversations."

Then here’s the Google-y part (although anyone who paid attention will note that Pulse already sounds a lot like Mountain View’s AIM-on-steroids offering): Pulse "will also work seamlessly with Google Wave so you and anyone you want to work with can . . . get down to business."

As for availability, there’s good news and bad news.  The bad: Pulse isn’t supposed to launch until 2010, so it’ll be a while before anyone can evaluate it.  The good: everyone should be able to evaluate it, because Novell has promised that there’ll be a free version.

A lot is riding on Pulse because, as Zee M Kane observed, Novell’s the first major corporation to embrace Google Wave.  What happens here could help determine if it catches on.

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Mac clients have a new version of the Plaxo application, which brings their Pulse feature to the Address Book. Pulse hooks up to what people call the ‘social graph’, essentially the social networking people do through a variety of services like Twitter, Digg, and other sites.

Plaxo users will want to use some care in setting up Plaxo, either in Mac Address Book or in Microsoft Outlook. Pulse can very effectively share one’s social activity with other contacts in Plaxo. While that may be the great promise of the social graph, there might be things people would rather not have charted with all of their contacts.

Once in place, Pulse for Mac Address Book provides a single point of contact for the various social updates other Plaxo connections perform. But wasn’t the whole point of the modern Internet, and even Plaxo, to free people from a fixed software client?

OK, so we’re talking about its decision to open up some of its source code–and not actually encourage nakedness on its network–but that wouldn’t make for an interesting headline, would it?

The company has released the code for its new “Online Identity Consolidator,” which can automatically discover a user’s social-networking accounts across the Web and embed their related RSS feeds on a Plaxo Pulse profile.

You can get access to the open source code at opensocialgraph.plaxo.com.

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Plaxo Launches Social Network Pulse

Using "people feeds" users can subscribe to the people in your address book and receive the content they want to share with you from a number of sites. The list of sites that are compatible with Pulse include, Amazon, AOL Pictures, Del.icio.us, Digg, Flickr, Jaiku, Last.fm, LiveJournal, MySpace, Picasa, Pownce, Smugmug, Tumblr, Twitter, Webshots, Windows Live Spaces, Xanga, Yahoo 360, Yelp and YouTube.

The company says they have plans to add more sites that are compatible with Pulse.

"Pulse represents the natural evolution of Plaxo," said Todd Masonis, Founder and VP of Products. "It’s all about keeping you more richly connected to the people you actually know, by transforming your address book into a true social network for your real personal and professional relationships."

Pulse users can share information publicly or only with people within their network. Other features of Pulse include one-to-one connections designed for categorization of relationships into family, friends and business network. It also has a share bar for sending messages, links or videos to those in your network.

After all, Facebook has been all the rage for – how long now?  months?  years?  depends on the audience, I suppose – and it still hasn’t caught up with MySpace.  According to a new comScore study, it’s not even close – in June of this year, MySpace attracted 114 million visitors, while Facebook received less than half that at 52 million.

Furthermore, Plaxo’s reputation isn’t exactly sterling – “Plaxo: Now With Less Evil” (an article by Michael Arrington) is within the top ten Google results for the company’s name.

Arrington’s willing to give Pulse a chance, though, and so is Robert Scoble.  Scoble’s created a rather detailed write-up of network’s merits, and notes, among other things, that Pulse is supposed to let users “control which groups of friends (or family) that can see certain items” – an option that’s been badly missed at Facebook and the rest.

“[O]n Monday,” Scoble continues, “I’ll try out the new Plaxo. . . .  The problem, though, is that even if I get really excited about it my email is demonstrating that many of the world won’t be listening and won’t care.”  If you happen to feel differently, VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon has further coverage and several screenshots.

These can come quite in handy. To create a big chart, simply take out the word booya in the URLs below and insert your own term. For phrases, insert %20 between the words. For example, Jim%20Cramer. I actually have this set up as a Firefox keyword search.

http://charts.technorati.com/chart/booya?size=xl (extra large chart)
http://charts.technorati.com/chart/booya?size=l (large chart)

Here is a chart that I was able to pull together on Dell. It gives you a sense for how big this topic was in the blogosphere once Jeff Jarvis started blogging about them in June. Unfortunately, as of right now you can’t pull together comparative charts or URL searches like you can with Ice Rocket or Blog Pulse, but Niall says they’re coming. Also, sometimes the charts are flaky. Sometimes I get 90-day charts, other times I get 365-day timeframes.

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.

The Class 4 hurricane decimated New Orleans and severely damaged other areas along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Its impact on the traditional news landscape remains to be seen.

Traditional journalists were feeling vulnerable even before the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season got underway. Over the past five years, media companies in the U.S. have cut nearly 72,000 jobs, according to I Want Media. The layoffs, which started in June 2000 and have continued into this summer, are one of the reasons why the mainstream media’s news coverage of Hurricane Katrina appeared to be a day late and a dollar short.

As Richard Chacn, the ombudsman for The Boston Globe, explained on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005, “Assigning too many people for what might turn out to be a smaller storm is a loss of valuable resources in a time of tightening news budgets.” However, he added, “Not having enough reporters and photographers on scene when tragedy breaks leaves readers feeling underserved.”

When Hurricane Katrina hit, a large number of bloggers and other “citizen journalists” moved quickly to fill this vacuum. This includes remote bloggers, who mobilized to provide much-needed information and relief aid, as well as a few on-the-scene bloggers, who emerged as unique sources of information in an area where electricity, Internet connections and telephone communications have been severely compromised.

According to Intelliseek’s BlogPulse, which analyzes daily posts from 15.6 million blogs, The Irish Trojan blog, written remotely by Brendan Loy from South Bend, Indiana, and Metroblogging New Orleans, written on-the-scene by nine New Orleans-area residents, are the most frequently cited hurricane-related blogs.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, the news search engines also moved quickly to fill the initial vacuum left by mainstream media.

According to BlogPulse, Yahoo News is the second most cited new sources for Katrina-related information, behind only CNN.com.

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, AOL News was one of the 10 fastest growing news and weather sites, jumping 71% from a unique audience of 1.8 million on Aug. 22 to 3.1 million on Aug. 29. By comparison, CNN.com jumped 44% from 4.8 million on Aug. 22 to 6.9 million on Aug. 29.

And according to AOL News,

On Monday, Aug. 29, page views on AOL News were up 73% over the previous Monday, Aug. 22.

Almost half of the web traffic on AOL news on Wednesday, Aug. 31, was to hurricane articles. While total page views were 10.7 million that day, 5.2 million of these page views were for hurricane
articles.

Photos of Hurricane Katrina have now been viewed more than 100 million times on AOL News.

In an email to me over the Labor Day weekend, Lewis D’Vorkin, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of AOL News & Sports, shared an interesting perspective on the impact of citizen journalists, blogs, and news search engines on the traditional news landscape. (I should disclose that D’Vorkin and I both worked at Ziff-Davis back in the 1990s, and that I’ve held a workshop for the AOL corporate communications department.)

“In a summer marked by London bombings, rising gas prices and record hurricanes, the world is turning to the fastest growing news team – citizen journalists – to get a human perspective through the eyes of those who lived or experienced the news as it unfolds,” he wrote.

D’Vorkin also suggested that I check out AOL News to find out “what we’re hearing from citizens related to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”

I clicked on See the Photos You Took to look at the pictures that citizens have taken of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. One citizen commented, “It not only will have an impact on my life but it will also make me take a different outlook on life.”

D’Vorkin stated, “Online news on AOL is becoming the people’s platform offering real-time dialogue.”

The interactive online news experience actually started three years ago with Hurricane Isabel and everything AOL News has been doing since has been an evolution of that experience.

During the 2004 Election, AOL News introduced a number of interactive tools that enabled its members to have their voice heard, hear from other members, and remove the filter of the media and become the person that gets to directly ask questions to lawmakers and other political leaders.

AOL has continued to create new platforms where Internet users can join in and shape the news.

For example, AOL News just expanded its foray into participatory journalism – which it calls Citizen Journalism – by launching the Daily Pulse Blog, a Gas Price Blog, and a Hurricane Relief Blog. If you click on Join in and Shape the News, you will see photos and comments that citizens have been sharing about Hurricane Katrina, gas prices and more.

With hundreds of daily postings, the Daily Pulse Blog demonstrates how actively users want to influence AOL News coverage. Comments on Hurricane Katrina not only serve as feedback shaping how the AOL News programming team approaches the rescue and relief stories, but reader comments also become part of the news report itself, adding firsthand perspectives from storm evacuees and survivors or their worried family members.

Another Citizen Journalist blog is currently tracking rising gas prices across the country. If you click on Pictures at the Pump, you will see the photos that citizens have been sharing along with their comments about gas prices.

“The role of Internet news is evolving as regular, everyday people step up to the online microphone to share, shape and take charge of their stories,” said D’Vorkin.

“While citizen journalism has existed in forms through letters to the editor, man on the street’ interviews and call-in radio or television shows, the widespread penetration of the Web has promoted the citizen journalist to a new stature. With new technology tools in hand, individuals are blogging, sharing photos, uploading videos and podcasting to tell their firsthand accounts of breaking news so that others can better understand. What we did is the future of news, except it’s happening now,” he added.

Even traditional journalists and mainstream media are beginning to acknowledge the important role played by bloggers and other citizen journalists.

A recent study by Euro RSCG and Columbia University found that more than 51% of journalists read blogs regularly and 28% rely on blogs to help in their reporting duties. Journalists use blogs to find story ideas, research and reference facts, find sources, and uncover breaking news or scandals.

Since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, CNN has received more than 3,000 files by email with hundreds of images and video. “Traditional journalism is the outside looking in,” Mitch Gelman, the executive vice president of CNN.com, told Information Week on Sept. 1. He added, “Citizen journalism is the inside looking out. In order to get the complete story, it helps to have both points of view.”

And washingtonpost.com announced on Aug. 31 that it has partnered with blog search company Technorati to offer washingtonpost.com readers the opportunity to view comments and opinions about its articles and editorials from around the blogosphere.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it may be too soon to know if traditional journalists and mainstream media will be able to rebuild their long-standing relationships with readers, viewers and listeners. But it is now as clear as the satellite imagery of New Orleans available on Google Maps that building stronger relationships with bloggers, citizen journalists, and news search engines should be a part of that effort.

Greg Jarboe is the co-founder and CEO of SEO-PR, which provides search engine optimization and public relations services to Southwest Airlines, Verizon SuperPages.com, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), and a growing list of other organizations. Jarboe is also the editor of SEO-PRs News Blog.

Many of us have fond memories of shooting their best friend in the head with a nail gun or blowing away bots on a grand scale in various version of Quake. There are certainly good games available for the cell phones now, like solitaire or golf games but for this serious gamers who now need their fix, this could be the way to fly.

The game got high marks at E3 and now the reviews are coming in saying this game is a child of its parents. And even better, as 3D enable phones hit the market this year, Quake will be one of the embeds on the system. It beats the heck out of Snake I’ll tell you.

The games claims 25 frames per second and 640×480 pixels. The game, like its precursors, will have multiplayer features and the ability to write mods. This game most definitely rocks.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

To help buyers and sellers more easily track this ever-changing marketplace, eBay rolled out “eBay Pulse“, an unprecedented, daily barometer that gives consumers insight into buying and selling trends at any given time from among millions of item listings on eBay.

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, eBay Pulse marks the first time eBay has aggregated data into one central destination for buyers and sellers. Updated daily, eBay Pulse features most popular searches, stores and products, as well as highest priced items and most watched items across the eBay marketplace and within hundreds of item categories.

“For the first time, eBay Pulse allows people to get their arms around practically everything that’s happening on eBay,” said Jim Griffith, eBay’s online shopping expert and dean of eBay Education. “Every day millions of buyers and sellers come together on eBay and define what’s truly hot. eBay Pulse is real-world information that’s updated daily, so it’s incredibly useful for someone looking for both buyers and sellers.”

With an easy dropdown menu, eBay Pulse allows buyers and sellers to find out what’s hot, new and interesting on eBay throughout categories such as toys & hobbies, collectibles, DVDs & Movies, sporting goods, eBay Motors and hundreds more.

For example, on Nov. 8, popular searches (based on the number of searches) across all categories on eBay were:

1. CDs
2. silver
3. DVDs
4. gold
5. Christmas
6. leather
7. games
8. shoes
9. jeans
10. girls

In addition to its top lists and other item listing details, eBay Pulse offers pop culture information, overall buying trends, fun facts about eBay, and other eBay-related news.

“With online commerce so prevalent during the holidays, eBay Pulse can give our members a quick and easy way to see pricing trends, what’s hot and popular gift suggestions,” said Griffith. “It also gives sellers an accurate, dynamic reflection of what’s in demand on any given day, which over time can help with inventory decisions.”

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