If you check Gmail’s settings, the last option under the “General” tab lets you “always use https” when accessing Gmail. It’s a fairly new option, and it might sound strange; isn’t Gmail secured by SSL (Secure Socket Layer) by default (hence switching to “https://gmail.com” when you type in “gmail.com” in your browser)?

The answer is: yes and no. Once you log in, Gmail reverts back to an unencrypted connection, since SSL connections are slower than regular ones. This means that whatever you do on Gmail is unencrypted from now on, and someone sniffing traffic on your network can easily obtain sensitive data.

Of course, not everyone has the skills to do that, so the chances of it actually happening are pretty small. Or, better put, they were small until now. As reported by Hacking Truths, a tool has been presented at DEFCON that makes stealing session IDs from Gmail a relatively easy affair. And once someone has your session ID, he/she can log in to your Gmail account without authentication.

In practice, this means that not having the “always use https” option checked, especially if you’re accessing Gmail through a wireless hotspot, or any other unsecure network, has become a hazard, and is not recommended. Google has been fairly silent about this, letting users decide what they want to do, but I’ve switched to SSL and I recommend you do, too, especially if you use Gmail for business purposes.

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I just finished watching the first two episodes of the new NBC Web Series Gemini Division. It’s an intriguing story that’s already got me convinced I’ll be watching all of the next 48 episodes slated to be released, something I never quite thought I’d say about a web video play by NBC.

The web video play is also intriguing on a number of levels, as it’s clear a whole lot of thought and savvy has been put into the release of the series, and that NBC is out to make a statement with it: we don’t need a community distribution portal, we’ll bring the viewers in to us.

Sure, they’re putting the series out on Xbox Live and “a few other various platforms” they don’t care to mention in the press materials, but it’s very clear that they intend for the show to be viewed primarily on NBC’s video portal, and it’s a tool to get visitors used to the idea of watching web video at NBC.com, as opposed to places they may be currently used to like YouTube.

Intentionally Low-Budget Look
While the series had a $2 million production budget, the eagle eye of the internet video audience will catch obvious production quirks meant to trigger the low-budget, indie producer spark in their mind. The entire series was filmed on a green screen set with professional grade lighting and high definition cameras.  It’s clear, though, that in certain spots low-resolution backgrounds were used, which stand out against some very sharp anti-aliasing between the subject and the background.

Similarly, in the scenes that break away from the second-person perspective of Rosario speaking to her PDA, two camera coverage is used; these scenes are brief, and only those with a savvy eye will notice it. For the most part, the show has the feel and vibe of a LonelyGirl15.

The low-budget feel is a bit of a farce, though, since the acting, directing, scripting and post-production is otherwise top-notch. Rosario completely drew me into the character and the story immediately after I hit play and the video properly buffered. The product placement and futuristic gadgetry is incredibly obvious but somehow unobtrusive. In short, this show is a professional piece of work and by and large isn’t in your face with the monetization.

I’m guessing once this series takes off, we’ll end up seeing this model used to finance future productions on a much wider scale.

A Unique and Sensible Way to Finance Production
I actually first learned about it when I was on the plane from Houston to Austin for the SummerMash event earlier this month. For years, I’ve had the habit of always picking up a copy of Wired Magazine any time I travel by plane, and Gemini Division recieved a feature length writeup in the hard copy of the magazine. Wired’s Frank Rose covered a wide array of details in the piece, but what interested me the most was the way the show was financed. In the beginning of the piece, he said:

Sure, the YouTube explosion was fueled by amateurs, but it will be showbiz professionals who cash in on Web video. That’s because most big corporate advertisers want a safe, predictable environment — not the latest YouTube one-off, no matter how viral.

And later, when he talked about the financing of Division, he explained that the production company Electric Farm at the time hadn’t decided on NBC as the distribution outfit yet, but had moved towards other financing options:

Meanwhile, [Electric Farm CEO Stan] Rogow has been talking with Cisco and a handful of other companies about another way to make money: product placement. As a Buck Rogers-style serial set “five minutes in the future,” the show presents many possibilities for tech companies. Dawson’s smartphone, for instance, is the aperture through which we see the entire series. She talks urgently into the device throughout each episode, sending the feed to someone — we don’t know whom — and occasionally holding it up to capture what’s going on around her. It’s a prominent branding opportunity for any handset maker willing to plunk down the money.

Of course, at the time of Wired’s press, Electric Farm wasn’t disclosing who those advertisers were, but on the first two episodes, the product placement advertisers appear to be Microsoft and Cisco. The story is told with the vehicle being video emails sent from a mobile device.

Remember those Cisco ads we ran on Mashable Conversations (”Pete Cashmore here. What’s your biggest pet peeve about online video…”)? Cisco’s placement in Gemini is a perfect fit for the campaign they ran with us and other videobloggers, as they’re focusing on the future of online and personal digital video. When the device ‘boots up’ for a new missive from Rosario, it shows a Cisco logo in the bottom right for a few seconds.

Similarly, the Microsoft involvement is both seamless and appropriate. At the beginning of the second episode, a combination of some sort of futuristic Windows mobile operating system that segues into a drill down approach of Paris, France (using the Microsoft Live maps protocol) showcases many existing and future possibile features of mobile mapping services. The only thing missing from the placement is the little icon that we used to run on our mobile posts saying “this sponsored post powered by Windows Mobile.”

This Isn’t Just for the Hollywood Pros…
The fact that I recognize all the placement sponsors so far and add to that have been sponsored by them here at Mashable under these very same campaigns tells me that these advertisers are accessible. If they’re accessible to the likes of me, that means this style of sponsored production is easily attainable soon for the common indie producer, contrary to what Frank Rose summized that this is going to be a boom only cashed in on by the Hollywood veterans.

Certainly, it didn’t hurt that there was a laundry list of Hollywood success stories signed on for this project, but this whole operation took place outside of the entrenched Hollywood studio system. NBC ended up distributing this piece, but it could have easily been any number of other highly trafficked portals.

For the work that’s been put into what looks like a very interesting storyline (not to mention a companion alternative reality game), I’d hate to see NBC’s gambit harm the viewership numbers for this series. They are doing a few things that us old New Media hands would consider very wrong in the distribution of this series: it isn’t being released in video podcast form, only the first four videos will be available for remote embed, and the distribution platform looks to be exclusively NBC’s web video portal.

This could end up being the rare case where a solid production ends up carrying the numbers through to respectable levels for NBC, but they could have done so much more in terms of return on investment and increased visibility had they chosen a more portable and open distribution strategy for this series.

Check it out, you’ll be glad you did.
Aside from all the industry analysis, it’s a great show, and I’ve embedded the first two episodes here at the bottom of this post. Take about six minutes and watch them both, and I’m sure you’ll be hooked as quick as I was.

Episode One

Episode Two

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Joe Francis, the fellow you see every early morning on Comedy Central pitching DVDs with girls baring their breasts for the low price of $3.95 for first three days and $19 a month after that, has launched a new website under the auspices of championing the first amendment and exacting a bit of retribution against an unfavorable judge.

The website he has launched displays videos of a non pornographic nature, though. In his plea to the public, he says “I recently experienced an unbelievable miscarriage of justice that made a victim of not just me but of all Americans who chirish their constitutional right to free expression,” and that “if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”

While the melodrama and the wide-reaching extent of his claims are debatable, the allegations he makes in the case are particularly eye-popping and admittedly credible. The site also announces that he’s seeking a $300 million lawsuit against Panama City, Florida authorities and opposition lawyers over a 2003 civil suit which saw him jailed without set bail for eleven months.

He alleges that the lawyers and judge worked ‘in cahoots to extort a ransom for Francis’ release from Panama City jail.” The site is also pleading on viewers to write Congress to have the judge from the 2003 case removed from the bench.

Pornography and First Amendment cases have a history, and Joe is likely setting himself up to be the Larry Flynt of the modern age here, and is breaking new ground, along with others like Google and the Sunshine Foundation’s LetOurCongressTweet. Launching a social media component to a lawsuit is becoming almost a pre-requisite, it seems, if imagine your lawsuit or legal action might have more far reaching implications than just your own small world.

Coincidentally, though, this topic came up with a friend of mine over the weekend. My friend has been a contract lawyer for thirty years, and has handled more than his fair share of civil cases. We were discussing a possible civil action for libel and slander that I had in my own future, and he strongly advised against me participating in this sort of action.

In my efforts to gather evidence for my own case, I had worn my journalist had as I plied potential witnesses for my case for information, which I justified by assembling the interviews and raw data I had assembled for a website that would be presented from an investigative journalists’ perspective.

When I discussed this idea with my lawyer friend, he said that it only had the potential to lower any damages I might be awarded in the case significantly (since in this particular case, the damages couldn’t be construed as having damaged my professional reputation since I was rebroadcasting the slanderous words in question), as well as limiting the legal avenues that could be pursued by me down the line.

Clearly, the social media approach to augmenting civil and criminal defenses isn’t a one-size-fits-all, but it is definitely turning into a trend that we can expect to see more of.

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Sosauce, the aesthetically-pleasing network designed for sharing photos and travel adventures, has rolled out two new major updates, both of which revolve around the sharing of media in an enlightening environment.

Expanding on its existing travel features, Sosauce’s new Travel Guide works in conjunction with the site’s travel recording tool for improved journey-sharing capabilities. This reflects Sosauce’s desire to become a more comprehensive service for planning trips, recording trips, and seeking advice from others, whether they are friends or other members of the community.

The specific features that are taking Sosauce in this direction include the ability to search for a destination and review opinions as well as itineraries from others that have shared their experience on Sosauce’s site, as well as the ability to embed your trip album on other sites and blogs for exported story-telling.

On the trip-planning front, there are new Trip Recording capabilities for planning a trip and then layering in media via photos, videos, journals, reviews, and points of interest. This can all be stuck onto a map for geo-location if you’d like, and all of these trip-planning features can be used for groups as well.

While the added trip-planning capabilities are fun, Sosauce’s new Mesa 3D environment is more interesting in my opinion, and combines the majority of the features you’ll find throughout the Sosauce site into a virtual world setting. The result isn’t entirely different from a Second Life home or building that features images from one’s travels boldly displayed on the virtual building’s walls.

But, while the act of media-sharing is becoming rather prominent in the web-based virtual worlds that are popping up, Sosauce’s specific implementation is rather interesting and highly customizable. You can even view a virtual globe for geo-locating media that’s being tagged from places around the world.

So far, Sosauce is working on extending its 3D environment to include virtual travel destinations as well as multiplayer games, and I’m sure another long term goal is to find some way in which to make one’s 3D travels exportable to some degree, just as the service has done with its 2D features in this current release.

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Powerset, the company that was acquired by Microsoft in an attempt to shore up its search, may be more lucrative than originally thought.  According to reports, Microsoft may be tapping Powerset’s technology to improve advertising in search results and in the process, change the way advertising is done.

Right now, advertisers bid to display their ads on search results pages containing specific keywords pertaining to the product or service they’re advertising.  For certain, niche products, that’s not so bad — fewer keywords mean more chances of targeting the right audience.  But for larger companies like Dell, which need to worry about countless keywords, the process can be far more taxing.  But Powerset believes that its natural language processing could change the way ads are displayed and enhance the profitability for all parties involved.

I think Powerset is totally wrong.

If a particular company sells sneakers, they can bid for placement on search results pages pertaining to “sneakers,” “shoes,” “footwear,” “socks,” “feet,” and the company’s and its competitors’ names.  But with natural language processing, as Powerset proposes, that company would need to bid on search concepts where people ostensibly ask for the best kinds of sneakers or where to find sneakers.

Powerset’s belief that this new type of ad-placement mechanism is game-changing may be true, but it’s wrong in believing that it would work better for advertisers.  How could it?

Keywords may not be fool-proof and may tend to make things more difficult for advertisers, but we can’t forget that bidding on them works for one reason: it simplifies a process that is extremely hard to gauge.  More often than not, people that search for sneakers will use some of the keywords listed above.  And while they may use others, a company is almost guaranteed that anyone even remotely fond of shoes will see their ad.

But in Powerset’s scheme, companies need to rely upon the intention of those same people and how well it can guess how they interact with a search engine, regardless of the keywords used.  In other words, they have to hope that a large portion of users will look for the same thing within the same basic parameters: “where to find sneakers at an affordable price.”

Trying to guess what people will say, as opposed to what people will include in their query, is extremely difficult.  Why try to guess a whole sentence or a structured query when you can pick one word and hope people use it?

Natural language is too subjective.  Sure, it might help return better results at times, but I think it will fail to make advertising any easier for the advertisers.  Keywords simplify things and help companies increase the chances of their ads being placed on the right pages at the right time.  But when they need to guess based on “natural language”, they’re forced to guess what each individual would say at any given time.  In the process, things become too complicated and the chances of engaging the highest number of people in the right market is limited.

Let’s not forget that Powerset worked with Wikipedia and there is currently no indication that it will work with Web search, let alone search results advertising.  This idea sounds too much like straw grasping from a company, in Microsoft, that’s desperately trying to pull one over on Google.  And if it goes through with this idea, that certainly won’t happen.

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Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.

Which note taking applications do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.

Evernote

Evernote is one of the most talked about online note taking applications. One special feature here is the drag-and-drop desktop version that allows you to see your notes and clips offline. You can use the Evernote mobile application for your Windows Mobile phone or iphone to capture pictures and record audio to send to your Evernote account. You can also email notes to Evernote using a secret email address.

Google Notes

Google Notes has some nice features including collaboration among multiple users, a publishing feature, integration with Google Bookmarks, the ‘Unfiled bookmarks’ link on the left sidebar of the Google Notes Web interface that sorts and displays all the urls you have saved, quick clippings of Web pages with the ’star’ button, and the export to Google Docs feature.

UberNote

UberNote works in the same manner as Google Notes. However, one neat feature here is that you can add your tasks in any note that you are working on. Later, you can view the ‘Open Tasks’ link on the sidebar of the UberNote interface to open all notes with incomplete tasks. Similarly, you can integrate your bookmarks with any note and find it later with the ‘Bookmarks’ link. Other nice things to know about UberNote are that it runs on AJAX and has a history feature that will save all the revisions you make on your notes. You can clip notes with the UberNote online dashboard, with the browser extension, email your notes to a personal email address, or from an AOL IM application.

Springnote

Springnote is an OpenID enabled online note taking application that takes a different approach than the ones mentioned above. This one is not for writing short notes and clipping websites, but longer notes, and comes out just a bit different than an average online office suite. The Springnote note editor is feature rich and you can choose from a variety of templates, plugins , and insert video and audio to enhance your notes. You can collaborate, share your notes with friends, or post them on your blog.

WebAsyst Notes

WebAsyst Notes comes with features for including attachments to your notes. You can sort the notes into specific folders and share the folders with your contacts. WebAsyst also has features to add files, photos, contacts, mail, projects, an issue tracker, pages, and a shopping cart.

Luminotes

Luminotes,a personal wiki notebook, as the site describes itself, is an easy to use wiki that lets you create notes. You can attach files to your wiki, and share them with your friends. Features such as automatic saving and revision tracking are very useful. Once you have completed your wiki, you can download it as well. This is not one of the conventional online notebooks but a key reason why you might want to use this is because of one feature that allows you to hyperlink one word or sentence in a notebook to another.

Stikkit

Stikkit wants to be a smart application without being clever. What it does is pick up specific terms from your notes and arrange your notes as to-do lists, calendars, contacts (peeps), bookmarks and tags list. Now is that smart enough? You can also choose to share your Stikkit notes with your contacts and receive comments. For quick Web clippings, it provides a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari, and a right click menu option for Internet Explorer users.

Fruitnotes

Fruitnotes allows you to create notes by calling a specific phone number, though currently they have only listed a US and UK number. It also allows you to create your own profile and view others’, thus doubling up as a social networking platform. The note editor is feature rich and lets you upload images and videos. Once done, you can publish your note for everyone to see.

Notefish

Notefish is a simple online note taking application that allows you to drag and drop your notes, resize them, color them, tag them, and share with contacts. You can also move one note from a particular project to another easily. There is a Firefox addon that you can use to clip Web pages conveniently.

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is the most sophisticated and most feature-laden online note application of the bunch. Zoho Notebook provides you a palette where you can type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. There are also various tools like the Line tool, Freehand tool, Select tool, Hand tool, and Shapes. There is a rich text editor with export, publish, and share features. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats and IP telephony, or use the Firefox plugin to add Web clips easily. If you are the advanced online notebook user type, then you will find Zoho Notebook providing the solutions to almost all your requirements. I said ‘almost,’ as I couldn’t find a mobile phone support for Zoho.

[Image credit: Jacob Boetter (attribution)]

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A new series called Model.Live is debuting this week on Bebo (see here). As you may have guessed, the show is about models. Produced by IMG Media and Vogue.TV, this made-for-Web series follows three female models, Austria Alcantara, Cato van Ee and Madeline Kragh along their journeys from their homes to the catwalk.

The show will premier on Vogue.TV tonight, and will be redistributed on Bebo, where each model will also have a profile for updating their blogs, video diaries, text messages, photos, schedules, and more. This format is rather typical of what we’ve seen for webisodes, especially those that are syndicated on networks like Bebo and MySpace, as they leverage the multi-faceted capabilities for sharing and spreading content throughout a community in hopes of engaging viewers on a higher and more integral level. It’s worked for the most part, carrying on the legacy of EQAL from LG15’s success on YouTube into the Bebo-specific KateModern series.

Model.Live’s sponsor, Express, has found some sensible branding opportunities with this very targeted content, providing featured merchandise available for purchase on its retail website. It seems like a prime opportunity for the inclusion of interactive video ads such as those offered by Overlay.tv and others, especially as such Web-only series begin to provide improved traction for brand marketing, and potential content for mainstream media outlets.

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BlastGroups is a new service that has set out to replace your casual groups on sites like Yahoo with features that combine group capabilities with email blasts, in order to easily share content with a given group of friends. BlastGroups gives users the ability to create and join multiple groups, and manage content across these groups.

Instead of a networking format that you may be accustomed to, BlastGroups works a lot more like Twine, with a bit of Pownce functionality mixed in for sharing a stream of content with friends. You can bookmark content as you surf the Web and pick which groups you’d like to share this content with. Beyond this bookmarking feature, you can also share files and photos with a given group, similar to box.net.

The email-blasting capability comes into play when you share content with friends, but it’s still limited in the traditional sense of email blasts, which are typically used for marketing purposes. Personally, I think this is a good thing. But you can still create an event and send out a blast to friends, so there is the potential for BlastGroups to become a marketing tool that mimics social media sharing and not just a direct marketing tool. In some regards, this could be a new way in which people can reach out to a group of contacts, but BlastGroups, as a more social tool, doesn’t have the robust features for doing things like collecting and managing contact information such as mobile phone numbers.

One drawback to a service like BlastGroups is that it has little import integration with other bookmarking and networking sites. As sites like Facebook add more capabilities for private network sharing, friends lists, and privacy settings, the ability to share content and send messages out to a group of selected few, the capability that BlastGroups provides is essentially contained within Facebook. Nevertheless, additional integration with bookmarking tools and social media sharing sites will make the use of BlastGroups’ service easier for end users.

This is a guest post written by Michael Cerda. He blogs about startups, people and the variety hour at Cerdafied.

Outsourcing product development (or parts of development) offshore sounds like a good idea at the time. After all, you can augment your dev group quickly and on the cheap. But it only seems to work under certain conditions; mileage does vary depending on the company. Longer-term enterprise development projects tend to be better suited for outsourcing than shorter-term consumer Internet projects for example (I learned this the hard way). It has to do with development cycles, level of skill required for tasks, time to market, and the ability to iterate.

Arguably, you shouldn’t ever completely outsource your product development. Some things are just too strategic to lose control over. If you do decide to outsource some parts, here are some tips.

1. Hire one of them

Hire someone locally who was originally from the country you’re outsourcing to. Oftentimes different languages or dialects exist in other countries, so be sure your guy speaks the lingo. Also be tuned into other cultural nuances (for example, make sure there aren’t centuries-old bad blood between your guy and the people at the firm you use).

2. Nurture them

You’ll want to take the time and make the investment in having an occasional call or even a visit to the offshore location. Offering a face and voice from the top helps gain buy-in, support and motivation for the project. Obviously if you have to do too much of this, it’s not worth it.

3. Package the tasks

Be mindful not to overwhelm them with a complex project with multiple touch points and dependencies. Have a baked, signed off spec completed and committed to and assign straightforward pieces of it. When you assign something, ask for a time/cost estimate which you can measure back to later. Once the work has been verified and tested you’ll be able to establish a baseline level of quality and performance; from there you’ll be able to give them more rope.

4. Top grade

Offshore dev shops tend to assign you a mixed team of some good folks, some ok folks, and some green folks. These proportions are simply part of their business model. Just don’t let it get the best of your development cycle and product quality. Ask for resumes and interviews of the people they’re assigning to your team.

5. Communicate with one voice

Use the guy from #1 to funnel all communications between your team and theirs. Besides language and time zone issues, there are project management and accountability requirements. The more chiefs you have, the more fingers you have pointing. You can’t afford the he said/she said.

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Firefox can be made into so much more than just a browser via its huge extension base.  Yes, this means you can replace some of your instant messenger, chat and microblogging needs by adding just a few extensions. Here are 18 tools that will let you turn your Firefox 3 browser into a communications portal.

Whenever we discuss numerous Firefox add-ons, we like to remind you that we do not recommend you install ALL of them unless you like your browser slowing down.

ChatZilla! - In a time before instant messengers exploded in popularity, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was all the rage, and it is still quite popular.  This extension will add an IRC client to your browser so you don’t have to open a separate program.

Gabbly Chat Sidebar - A sidebar client for Gabbly chats hosted on any Web page or community.

Google Talk - Allows you to add Google Talk integration to your browser.

GTalk Sidebar - This sidebar extension allows you to use Google Talk in your window without having to stay on GMail all the time. It also lets you save yourself the effort of installing the stand alone GTalk application for your desktop.

Meebo - Adds integrated instant messaging via the Meebo system inside of your browser.  In the sidebar you can see which buddies are online, as well as which system they are using, and when need be, you can drag links and images over to them.  You can learn more about Meebo in this episode of Mashable Conversations.

SamePlace - Works in Firefox, Flock and Thunderbird to give you the ability to chat with your contacts on AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Twitter and Yahoo.

SMS Sidebar - This extensions gives you the ability to send SMS messages to just about any phone in the world.  It does cost money after the first 50 text messages, but seems to be reasonably priced and offers numerous features.

WataCrackaz AutoSMS - Allows free two-way SMS text messaging to phones all around the world and actually allows you to receive replies.

Yaplet - Adds the Yaplet chat system to your sidebar so you no longer have to switch tabs while you chat and can continue to surf as you talk.

Yoono - The Yoono sidebar can be updated with widgets for all major instant messengers.

FirePownce - An official extension from Pownce that allows you to update your account via a button added to Firefox.

Fownce -Allows you to post the current URL you are viewing to Pownce or just post a general update to your account.

Mahalo Share - Lets you recommend a page across numerous services, including Pownce and Twitter.

Shareaholic.com - Lets you update numerous services from one handy plugin, including Pownce and Twitter.

Twitkit - Highly customizable Twitter application that allows you to choose colors, look up your account information, manage your followers and more.

TwitterBar - An interesting extension for Firefox that allows you to use the browser’s address bat to also send Tweets to your account on Twitter.

TwittyTunes - Feel a burning desire to tell Twitter what you are listening to via FoxyTunes?  This extension will solve your dilemma.

Twitzer - Twitzer is not a Twitter client, but a tool to help you get more than the 140 characters into that little box.

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Frank Warren, PostSecret blogger and author of “A Lifetime of Secrets,” is now chatting live on live.yahoo.com/mashable, answering questions and comments. He will also be reading PostSecret postcards that he received this morning.

This is the fourth installment of our PostSecret four part series. If you missed the first three be sure to check out Warren’s Personal introduction, post on viral mechanisms, and most recent post on using social media to create positive change.

*The video embed below is a live broadcast, but you must log into Mashable’s Y! Live Channel to chat with Warren.

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Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Just Leap In

20-word Description: Just Leap In brings innovation to 3D worlds on the Web, combining simplicity, next-gen visuals and physics, multimedia sharing and social networking.

CEO’s Pitch: We use the Web every day to check on friends, browse multimedia and news, and discover new people. Just Leap In aims to bring that daily simplicity to virtual worlds, on any webpage. When you land in JLI, we want you to feel like you’re smack in the middle of a social community where you can express yourself, upload multimedia, and link to friends - not in the middle of an empty island. And unlike other Web-delivered virtual worlds, we’re already delivering next-gen 3D graphics and physics to both Mac & PC, Firefox & IE.

Mashable’s Take: The concept of a virtual world in terms of a graphical, game-like environment doesn’t particularly suit my interests. Yet I find Just Leap In, a beta release launched out of Vancouver, Canada, offers a surprisingly rich experience in terms of interaction with objects and visual detail of most everything involved. What’s more, all such interplay is accomplished within one’s browser.

Now, it should be said that there is a software download necessary to browse Just Leap In’s dimensions. But it is available for Mac and PC users, and the time it takes to install said download and begin enjoying what’s been created is a simple matter of restarting Firefox/IE.

Gamers familiar with the mouse-plus-keyboard setup will have little trouble adjusting to the set of options shown in the controls panel. But it’s a bit unintuitive so far as the use of the mouse cursors is concerned. You may find yourself wanting to change your view with your cursor, but that cannot happen. At least it is not possible on the Mac side of the equation. Instead, you must use your keyboard to do so. JLI’s creators instruct the user to complete a Ctrl+click+drag maneuver for something called “mouselook,” but this process is evidently disturbed by a very similar Ctrl+click trigger that brings up a Reset/Set Start/Revert Texture menu of choices.

If you’re willing jump this hurdle, though, you will find Just Leap In an appealing alternative to Second Life and its competitors. It’s browser-based nature makes it something of a stunner. The physics engine is a treat, and visual detail again is an outstanding highlight. A look at the world in full-screen is pretty remarkable when one considers the setting in which the application is operating.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

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Need your software tested for functionality, usability, and durability by a global supply chain of assessors? A company by the name of uTest, based in Ashland, Massachusetts, is today announcing the general availability of its network of service specialists for the software developer arena. The network is intended to offer a controlled, pseudo real-world trial of a particular application and present a quality feedback report, complete with bugs discovered and the like.

It calls its worldwide list of specialists the uTester Community, and so far it is has claimed companies such as Xobni, Move Networks, GoAnimate, Synthasite, RepairPal, and others as customers. Perhaps the most outstanding benefit of uTest’s international asset base is its on-demand character, allowing customers the convenience of accessing the powers that be out in the cloud when needed. For Internet companies managing a busy release/upgrade schedule, this can naturally be a major benefit for keeping the process expedient and maintaining a level of consistency in terms of the product they ultimately deliver to users.

Since its start, the network that uTest now manages has grown to become quite far-reaching, consisting of 8,300 people in over 130 countries. The company states rather proudly its recruitment of roughly 10% of the estimated global professional testing pool to its force. It makes note of the availability of a variety of skill sets among its ranks - novice to expert - to ensure that customers with budgets big and small can all exercise the services uTest provides.

Also, costly, long-term contracts aren’t required. Customers can either pay for annual subscriptions to tap the uTest Community, or on demand only when necessary. The company’s pay-for-performance and pay-per-bug mantra, which spans all available payment models, keeps costs directly in line with what uTest is able to pinpoint as vulnerable and needing attention, rather than simply issuing a blanket fee irrespective of the particular job. All in all, a boon to the developer world whose numbers of users increasingly necessitate superb quality assurance, yet who’s budgets may not leave ample room for big spending on a thorough pre-launch review.

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Yahoo announced today that Buzz is now open to the public and anyone who wants to submit stories is free to do so.  Prior to this, only a handful of publishers were allowed to post stories as Yahoo tried to get the kinks out.

But now that Yahoo Buzz is officially ready for business, It’s an apropos time to discuss whether or not this site will have an impact on Digg, the de facto leader in this space.  And although some would claim that Digg isn’t really a competitor to Buzz because the latter is somewhat controlled by human intervention, I think it absolutely is a competitor and one that could have a major impact on Digg’s value in prospective acquisitions.

Since April, when traffic reached its peak, Digg’s numbers have been slumping.  Granted, they’re not slumping too much and the site is still performing extremely well, but it is down nonetheless.  And although the reason for that could be practically anything, I think Digg slowly lost its appeal when it stopped becoming a tech-savvy haven and tried to expand into areas that its tech-influenced crowd didn’t care about.

Let's face it -- does Digg really want to compete head-on with Yahoo?  Sure, Digg is a known quantity and it has slayed beasts before, but I don't think it has enough in the tank to beat Yahoo Buzz.  Why?  Because Yahoo Buzz can offer publishers a flood of traffic that beats Digg's huge numbers and will be a favorite of publishers and users, alike.

Yahoo Buzz is taking the Digg idea, improving it by reducing the frequency of people gaming it, and launching with a focus on all topics with its own main page to back it up.  How can Digg compete on any one of those levels?

When Digg was firmly focused on tech and didn’t try to improve algorithms to make upcoming stories last longer before they went popular, or stop certain “influencers” from being too successful, people found some value in using the site.  It was a place to find the best stories on the best topics from a wide array of sites.

But now, it’s nothing more than a placeholder of derivative stories and outrageous comment threads.  Even worse, it’s a site with little focus and one that’s trying desperately to get to the mainstream when all it really needs to do is hold on to its niche and not let go until a company finally decides to acquire it.

But alas, Digg won’t do that and it’ll try desperately to fight Yahoo Buzz on every topic.  And in the process, it’ll lose value and prospective buyers will ask why they should pay $200 million for a site that’s trying desperately to compete with Yahoo.

Yahoo Buzz is built for the masses.  And although Digg wasn’t originally built to appeal to the masses, the company is trying desperately to do just that.  And in so doing, it’s fighting the wrong company for dominance.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week and a half (and probably even if you have), you’ve undoubtedly heard the name Michael Phelps many, many times. The record setting swimmer from the US not only won an unprecedented eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, but is perhaps (and waaay more importantly) the longest running “trending topic” on Twitter search.

And today the 23-year-old from Baltimore has yet another accomplishment to add to his social media resume: one million Facebook fans! With a little prodding from the social network (the site has been congratulating him and directing US users towards his fan page - see below), Phelps is now second only to Barack Obama in fans, and is quickly approaching 50,000 wall posts too.

Beyond the Fan Page, Phelps actually uses Facebook, and alluded to the sudden surge he was seeing in friend requests in an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas over the weekend. How long will Phelps mania last? According to Google trends (which only updated thru Sunday), news references for the athlete have finally leveled off, but given Phelps is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week and the Olympic closing ceremonies still await, expect him to swim right past Obama and become the most popular Facebook user of all-time.

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Yesterday we saw the official release of Blogs.com. Blogs.com is making top ten lists of blogs in several categories “to help you discover the best sites that you never knew existed.” The site looks well-designed, but a question remains, what are we trying to solve? The inclusion of celebrity (including people like Alyssa Milano) top ten lists implies that this could be a mainstream blog directory in the same mold as Alltop. So, what is the point of Blogs.com?

Let’s ask a different question. What is the point of a blog directory? Generally speaking, a blog directory is meant to list various blogs with their general content topic. With this in mind, it is typical to see “hot” blogs in the category or even just hot topics. In the past we have seen sites like Technorati combine this idea with their notion of “Authority.” Technorati Authority is often used to determine how popular a blog may be. As useful as rankings can be, Technorati has fallen out of favor. Additional development has been limited and people really do not use it to find new blogs.

Other “blog directories” have tried adding a social component. MyBlogLog targeted tracking links that readers had clicked on, but allowed registered users to connect with other bloggers and join blog “communities.” In the past few months, they even added a lifestreaming component for each user. The tracking information is a very solid offering, but the lifestreaming has had questionable success.

Blog Catalog aimed to be the social network for bloggers. This includes a categorized directory as well as enabling users to “friend” other blog authors. For whatever reason, these sites have plenty of monthly traffic, but never really took off.

Other sites try to integrate blog posts with mainstream media news stories. Wikio is a personalized news page where blog authors can submit their blog for inclusion as an article source. As expected, the news is broken into several categories, but there are only 15 top level categories and no subcategories.

Another interesting site is BlogRunner. It is trying to be a news aggregator by mixing blogs with mainstream media sources. Not surprisingly, this is a mainstream media production from the New York times. The most interesting part of this offering is the topic index where you see a large list categorized into Companies, Countries, Organizations, People and several others. This could be useful to find information, but does not help find particular or interesting blogs.

As you can see, a lot of people think that blogs contain some useful information. Even mainstream media is starting to see the power of blogs. However, blog directories have not really done much to help bloggers or readers. “News style” sites like Blogs.com, Wikio and BlogRunner also list various blogs but are more focused on presenting information as opposed to generating exposure for specific blogs. These sites also do not have a functional differentiator that would cause people to choose one site over another.

What problem are these sites trying to solve? Even after a quick review of the sites, there is not an obvious problem except the implied “giving blogs more exposure.” Exposure is really only needed by the smaller blogs that do not get highlighted by these types of sites. Most of these sites suffer from having a solution in search of a problem. MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog do have specific focus that will keep them alive for a while, but they are very focused on the blog author not the reader. What site could provide a way for people to find new or interesting blogs without being overly technical?

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Just last week we heard of Dell’s upcoming Latitude On feature, which allows you to immediately access certain applications on your computer upon opening your notebook, effectively bypassing the Windows boot up process. Powered by Intel, this Latitude On feature was designed and implemented by Dell. At the time, I noted the probability that some larger companies will create such features in-house and provide some competition for software makers like DeviceVM, the maker of Splashtop.

That’s not to say that the smaller software makers are down and out - in the world of capitalism, competition makes the world go round. And now Splashtop, the company that provides the instant-on application for computers that would like immediate access to things like the Internet, has an additional $15 million to keep the competition going. This Series C round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc., with existing investors Storm Ventures, DFJ Dragon, Tim Draper and Larry Augustin also participating in this round.

To make Splashtop’s position even greater, the company has partnered with HP on select notebooks and has more PC manufacturer partnerships in the works. In conjunction with Splashtop’s funding announcement, we also learn that ASUS has chosen to extend its partnership with Splashtop for the use of its instant-on environment capabilities. ASUS will be using Splashtop for its Eee Box B202 Nettop computer, which is a desktop version of its low-cost notebook that was introduced last year. As an alternative to some of the larger brands, ASUS is pushing to differentiate its position with the inclusion of Splashtop’s instant-on ability to bypass the boot-up process.

And while Dell has a large focus on the business side of the personal computer industry, HP is targeted towards college students, who could easily latch onto the features that Splashtop provides. I also mentioned that the inclusion of more accessible features on a computer was also a step towards competing with the mobile phone industry on some level, though I feel its ultimately part of a larger merging process between the two types of devices when it’s all said and done.

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If you’re a tech-savvy guitar player, you’ve heard of Guitar Pro. It’s a desktop application that improves on standard guitar tabs, turning them into midi-playing note sheets which show the exact duration of each note as well as its position on the fretboard. If you want to learn how to play a song exactly to the last note, there’s no better way to do it.

Now, Guitar Pro has an online competitor called Songsterr. On the basic level, it’s the same thing, although Songsterr creators claim their engine is more sophisticated than the one in Guitar Pro. The application lacks many advanced features found in Guitar Pro, but it at least supports various tunings and playing at half at full speed, and overall it looks slick and works great.

The problem with it is that, although it’s an online application, it doesn’t really offer any social features. It’s like a desktop app translated into an online app, and as such it doesn’t offer much additional value over Guitar Pro, except for the fact that it’s free. The developers have some promises in stock, though:

- addition of library of 50 000 songs;
- support of more guitar effects (slides, bends, pull offs, hummer ons, etc);
- electric guitar sound engine and support of more instruments;
- upload of tabs by user (in Guitar Pro format);
- social features.

Yup. The first four are nice, but it’s that last one - very unspecified at this point - that’s going to make a difference. Still, kudos to the developers for good execution and a good idea. It definitely made me dig up my dusty Ibanez (and realize that 5 years of not playing does things to your style).

Online advertising is the key to the future for companies that want to be successful, but a small firm called Lotame has just raised $13 million in Series B funding to take aim at advertisers and provide a unique way of getting in front of the target audience.

Right now, online advertising is being dominated by companies that look to spend money based on the number of visitors to a site.  For publishers, they offer a CPM (cost per thousand) advertising rate, which charges those companies a specified amount per 1,000 pageviews.  Advertisers then hope that their advertising efforts pay off and it gets in front of the right people.

But Lotame tries to do something different.  Aiming to capitalize on social networking, the company has partnered with more than 20 social sites and content producers, including Fotolog, Huffington Post, and Flixster, to place its proprietary technology into the code of the sites.  From there, the company collects anonymous user data and user gender, age, and zip code to develop a full understanding of key demographics each site offers.

After collecting this data, it keeps it on-hand for advertisers that are looking to target a specific audience.  As the company’s CEO, Andy Monfried, explained to me, advertisers will come to Lotame asking to advertise their product to “a 27-year old woman who recently consumed or created content about something similar to their product.“  After analyzing data across all the sites, Lotame then returns to the advertiser with the number of 27-year old women — usually more than 10,000 — that have done just that and sells advertising to them not based on that number, but by the number of minutes they want their ad put in front of those people.  In other words, advertisers can request a three-minute slot to put their ad in front of people they feel are most likely to use their product.

As you can see, Lotame’s take on advertising is extremely different and snubs conventional wisdom on a number of levels.  It should be noted, though, that the company doesn’t work with MySpace or Facebook, or any other major social network, for that matter.  Instead, it focuses on mid-tier services that adequately offer the kind of demographics most major US companies are looking for.

But it begs an important question: is Lotame’s idea the future of online advertising?  At first glance, it looks like a service that might actually change the way things are done forever.  And in an industry that’s expected to grow well into the billions, that’s not such a bad thing.

Think of it this way: right now, advertisers are at the mercy of publisher data in most cases and generally hope that the demographics provided to them are representative of the users when their ads are displayed.  But by working with Lotame, advertisers can be far more specific in their needs and adequately target the exact demographic they want.  And so far, it looks like it has worked — Lotame has a 90 percent retention rate.

That said, it’s working with a variety of second-rate social networks and there’s no indication that major advertisers will really want to work in the mid-tier if they think they can make it big with a major site like Facebook, which is hard at work trying to create a unique and extremely compelling advertising platform.

And we simply can’t forget that some people will complain about privacy problems and claim that Lotame is spying on them and capturing their private information.  And although Lotame contends that it’s in no way stealing private data and everything is anonymous, the debate will rage on regardless.

But I can’t fault Lotame’s intent on innovation.  For the first time, advertisers can capture real data in real-time for a specific demographic that they really want to target.  And although Lotame would be best-served working with larger organizations, it thinks it has found its niche and as it continues to grow, will continue to create a value proposition for advertisers that want to capitalize on the social networking space.

Will Lotame transform the online advertising business?  Right now, it’s too early to tell.  But rest assured that if it does, more companies will jump on this bandwagon in seconds.

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uLocate, the location-based application provider, has teamed up with Garmin to push its Buddy Beacon feature that allows you to find your nearby friends. It works in reverse, too - your friends can find you as well. This was all built on WHERE’s Buddy Beacon network, developed by uLocate, so Garmin’s involvement simply provides another device on which Buddy Beacon can be used.

A select few of Garmin’s current and future GPS devices will be enabled with Buddy Beacon so that Garmin users can connect with friends and share their location, along with their status. Since WHERE is already integrated with a number of existing social networks, updating your location and/or status through a Garmin-enabled device can broadcast this information across your other profiles where you’ve activated WHERE’s service, including Facebook.

As Garmin creates standalone GPS devices, there is some overlap between Garmin’s capabilities and those found on other devices like the iPhone, so integrating with social networking and providing ways in which people can use Garmin’sGPS devices to connect with each other offline means that Garmin is increasing its value and moving towards the support of a more inclusive ecosystem for the use of its devices.

As we’ve seen with Fire Eagle’s launch last week, the applications with which GPS-enabled devices are now being integrated with are increasing in practicality and consumer appeal. We’re sure to see a great deal more development come from this particular space, as more networks, devices and third-party manufacturers for products like vehicles find more ways in which to integrate such developments into their items, giving consumers a highly integrated and connected experience for sharing and connecting with others.

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