Daily photos from Twitter

A picture is worth a thousand words. Our mashup Twitter's day in photos has been updated.

It presents for you trends in Twitter, illustrated by the photos from Twitter (all stores for images, including Instagram and Twitter's own image hosting for example)

Technically it is based on our images search for Twitter

Vertical search for Twitter: food

One of the most delicious from our mashups has been updated. Get an idea about your next lunch right from Twitter. Mashup Food from Twitter provides a vertical search for Twitter and shows you the live stream of food pictures just published in Twitter. See what other people are eating right now.

New version supports Instagram and own image hosting from Twitter.

You can also pass the following parameters to the original URL:

lat - latitude
lng - longitude

and perform local search. For example:

Food in London
Food in Palo Alto

Tracking visitors in malls

"Big Box Brother: While You Shop the Mall, the Mall Shops You. From Black Friday though to the end of the December, two malls in southern California and Richmond, Va., will be following shoppers by tracking their cell phone signals. When somebody walks out of the Gap, into the Starbucks, out through the Nordstrom and on to the Auntie Annes pretzel stand, the mall will be monitoring." - from here.

It what we wrote in SpotEx by the way :-)

QR-code shop

eBay is opening a temporary physical store in the West End of London before Christmas. What’s so special about that? No tills – all purchases made using QR codes and smart phones - from here.

P.S. link provided by QR-code maker

Men vs. Women

It is a good illustration for our SpotEx project :-)

WATN - safe location sharing

Our mobile service WATN (Where Are They Now) has been updated. It is mobile web application (HTML5) provides a new safe way for sharing location info. There is no sign-in and no third-party servers with user's identity and location.

Here you can see our WATN presentation

You can copy service right to your mobile browser (iPhone, Android, Bada - any HTML5 browser) with the following QR-code:



http://watn.linkstore.ru (it is a mobile site).

A new version supports avatars (profile images) for users.

City forums

Our mobile web mashup City forums has been updated.

Mashup combines places from Foursquare and cloud forums from Disqus. Just a wrapper lets you discuss places in your city. It is HTML5, so the whole application works on the mobile phones like iPhone, Android, Bada etc.

http://cforum.linkstore.ru

(it is a mobile site).

You can copy this link right to your mobile browser with QR-code above. Alternatively you can use the following short URL: http://bit.ly/aFCbjF

P.S. btw, you can see tips from Foursquare with our Geo browser mashup.

A new model for delivering hyper-local content

Our presentation from LBS-2011 conference:

LBS-2011: a new model for getting local content

View more presentations from Coldbeans Software

Real objects and discussions

Our mobile mashup Mobile forum has been updated. It lets you create a mobile web page for the discussions (via Disqus API) and an appropriate QR-code for the quick access. Just place this code on any real (physical) object and you (your customers, visitors etc.) will get a forum for this object. Tested for HTML5 mobile browsers (iPhone, Android, Bada, Opera 10.1 etc.).

Check out also the following similar applications from our directory:

Geo talk - discussions on the map
City forum - Places + discussions
Place card - Facebook like for the real objects
QR-code maker - mobilize your content with QR codes

Geo Search

Our mashup Geo search has been updated. Lets you see local news from Google illustrated by the local photos from Twitter. Just click on the map for the place you are interested in.

You can provide the following optional parameters for the base URL:

lat - initial latitude for the map
lng - initial longitude
zml - zoom level

Also mashup supports language settings for the map. Parameter's name is - hl. For example:

http://geo.linkstore.ru?hl=ru
http://geo.linkstore.ru?hl=en etc.

Combining SMS and Mobile Apps for Special Offers

Guest post by David Malmborg. David works with Dell and enjoys writing about technology, computers and saving money.

Many companies have tried to communicate with their customers with SMS messaging in the past. It is simple, convenient, and has the potential to reach a huge number of potential consumers. However, if it’s not done just right, it also has the potential to become an annoyance and unwanted interruption.

The biggest mistake that companies make with this form of marketing is to believe that simply having a phone number makes it okay to use for this kind of messaging. If a company sends an unsolicited text message to any phone, though, it can immediately turn that customer against them. Sending offers through SMS messaging should only happen when the customers have opted in and indicated that they are open to this kind of information.

There is one other disconnect between the SMS message and the sale that retailers have to overcome.These texts can reach the potential customer at any time, in any location, and when they receive the information, they may not be in a position to do anything about it. Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced world, it is far too easy for the simple message to slip their minds – and they won’t act on the offer even when they are in a position to do so.

A Different Solution

Dell is using a combination of SMS messaging and its new mobile app to overcome some of these concerns. By texting the word "OFFER" to 335548, consumers can opt-in and start receiving exclusive offers on various products (currently, Dell is offering $100 off of an XPS 15 or XPS 17 laptop). At the same time, customers will receive a download link for the new Dell Mobile app.

This application is available for both Android phones and iPhones, and it can be downloaded for free straight from the individual app stores, and it provides a lot of features for mobile consumers. Dell.com is one of the largest online retailers, and this app was designed to provide a secure and streamlined shopping experience as well as a number of other tools that can help a customer through the buying
process.

The Dell Mobile app includes a shopping advisor that can provide important information before a customer makes the final decision, a side-by-side comparison engine to look at a few products at the same time, and a simple way to look at many ratings and reviews. It also includes an order tracking tool so customers can see exactly where all their purchase are right in the same app they used to buy it.

The biggest difference, though, comes in the ability for customers to immediately use the special offer they received via SMS messaging right in the Dell Mobile app. There is no longer a disconnect between when a consumer receives an offer and when they can put it to use. Combining SMS and mobile applications can bridge that gap and make it easier for consumers to take advantage of some exclusive offers.

P.S. editorial notes to our readers: yes, we accept guest postings. Feel free to contact

P.P.S. by the way, you can replace (complete) SMS-based services with Twitter. Check out for example our 411 for Twitter service. It is a good technology for creating such kind of services.

Place Card - Like button for real object

Our mashup Place card has been updated again. Lets you place Facebook Like button on the physical object.

Mashup creates QR-code for mobile page (and that page itself, of course) with Facebook's Like button. As soon as QR-code (e.g. placed on the product's wrap) is scanned and an appropriate URL is opened in the mobile browser we can show Like counts. And of course, mobile user will see who from his/her friends likes that too. As a result – we have a simple recommendation system on the base things from Facebook.

And it is possible also to check out stats for created pages (we are using FBstat here)

Profile image from Facebook

A quick way for getting profile images from Facebook. E.g. for user zuck you should be able to use in your HTML page some like this:

<img src='/servlet/fb?name=zuck'/>

etc. It is what our new component in JSOS is for - Facebook profile image servlet

Embeddable QR-code maker

You can see our QR-code maker as embedded solution on CliCode site.

/via CliCode blog

FourSquare follows us

As per new web features in Foursquare it looks like our ForumSquare :)

Socialize your search

Our mobile web mashup - Ask friends has been updated. It is a wrapper for Google search lets you share your search query with your friends in Facebook. Mashup simply posts your query on Facebook’s wall and redirects you to Google SERP. Who will help you the most?

Mobile site: http://askfriends.linkstore.ru

You can use also the following QR-code:

Idea being stolen by VC company?

Fatdoor Founder Sues Benchmark Capital, Saying It Stole His Idea for Nextdoor. Really? Why do they (VCs) need to stole ideas?

Mobile components

Interesting project: marketplace for mobile components - Verious

Directory of mashups

Our mashups directory has been updated. A huge collection of applications: Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, LBS, QR-codes, mobile HTML5 etc.

The latest release includes our context-aware applications (WiFi Chat), Google Plus API test (photo puzzle) and new Chrome extensions, for example

Profile image from Twitter

A quick way for getting profile images from Twitter. E.g. for @t411 you should be able to use in your HTML page some like this:

<img src='/servlet/twi/t411'/>

etc. It is what our new component in JSOS is for - Twitter profile image servlet

Ask friends

Mobile web mashup - Ask friends. It is a wrapper for Google search lets you share your search query with your friends in Facebook. Mashup simply posts your query on Facebook’s wall and redirects you to Google SERP. Who will help you the most?

Mobile site: http://askfriends.linkstore.ru

You can use also the following QR-code:

QR-code maker - mobilize your content

Our mashup QR-code generator has been updated. It is a quick way to mobilize any content (just a copy/paste procedure). Simply copy your text and get mobile web page as well as an appropriate QR code. URL, email, phone numbers in your text could be automatically converted to hyperlinks (or click-to-call links). Also mashup can add HTML5 audio controls for mp3 (ogg, wav) links.

You can also add file for downloading, open links with wireless transcoder (lets you see web pages on the limited mobile web browsers), program your mobile page for one time access only, share your page in the social networks.
For one time access your visitor will be able to open that page only once. Could be convenient for delivering some secure or non-free context.

A new version of mashup lets you add mobile discussions to your page as well as Google Analytics.

P.S. the similar mashups that inspired discussions feature are City forums and Mobile forum

WHOIS for Twitter

Our mashup Info from Twitter has been updated. It lets you pickup from the social graph other resources, associated with the given twitter account. It is a dead simple way to discover who is your new follower and who you to follow to in Twitter. Whois for Twitter.

You can directly type a name for twitter account on the mashup's page or pass it as a parameter. For example;

http://tinfo.linkstore.ru?u=t411

Also here you find an appropriate bookmarklet for this service.

P.S. check out also Whois for Facebook

Internet of things

"IoT-A, the European Lighthouse Integrated Project addressing the Internet-of-Things Architecture, proposes the creation of an architectural reference model together with the definition of an initial set of key building blocks. Together they are envisioned as crucial foundations for fostering a future Internet of Things. Using an experimental paradigm, IoT-A will combine top-down reasoning about architectural principles and design guidelines with simulation and prototyping to explore the technical consequences of architectural design choices" European projects

Location aware posts in Facebook

Facebook’s documentation for publishing is very bad. It sucks actually.

Post objects are now location-aware. As per Facebook. However, I can’t find in the API how you can add location to a post when publishing via the API. Does it work?

Analyzing Social Media Data

A couple of interesting articles (and links) about analyzing social media data ( mostly - twitter):

Analyzing Social Media Data
Analytics for Real Time web

Facebook stat for sites

Our mashup - FBstat has been updated. Lets you obtain stat data from Facebook for any given URL (share counter, like counter, comments and clicks counters)

P.S. as a similar mashup check out also Social Graph for sites

P.P.S. technically it is based on the custom tags from Coldbeans

Why do we need check-ins?

The Power of foursquare: 7 Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check In Wherever They Are

View more presentations from Carmine Gallo

P.S. sponsored by Places for Facebook - your customized check-ins for Facebook

Facebook stats for pages

People Talking About (that might not be the final name for the metric; at press time, Facebook wasn’t sure) will measure user-initiated activity related to a Page, including posting to a Page’s Wall, "liking", commenting, sharing a Page post or content on the Page, answering a Question posed to fans, mentioning a Page, "liking" or sharing a deal or checking in at your Place. - from Mashable

It means that if you create your own customized check-in in Places for Facebook you will be able to monitor the stat via Facebook itself right on your page for place

GeoLoco conference

We continue to share links for monitoring the interesting events in Twitter. Now it is Geo-Loco, SF, CA



/via Geo Messages

P.S. and the same in Twi-gazeta:   Geo-Loco

Social graph and social links for sites

Our mashup Social links has been updated.

Lets you search for sites associated with the given URL (e.g. other sites from the same author) as well as for the links (recommendations) in the social networks.

You can directly set your URL and search type in the request too. For example:

http://news.ycombinator.com - more ycombinator
dzone.com - links to dzone

P.S. check out also Whois for Twitter