Skype as Social Network: SkySpace

While everyone is talking about Skype’s new pricing plan1 this week, we got a note this morning from a company called Bertorello announcing a product called SkySpace, which the company says is “the first social network for Skype.” SkySpace is actually a renamed, retooled version of Skype work collaboration tool called Verosee, which Argentina-born CEO Pablo Bertorello developed. Verosee (which I looked at a year ago) is a pretty unmarketable name — not like the buzzy moniker you get when you mash-up hot property names Skype and MySpace, ie SkySpace. We downloaded it onto a PC (no Mac) and basically its an easier way to do file-sharing for Skype users (Skype users can already transfer files). The application enables users to share files like photos and videos, both privately to another user or publicly to the broader community. Users can also personalize their SkySpace homepage, which the company says will jump-start social connections. The application appears to be Skype-certified, and is available in the Skype’s extra’s page.

Microsoft releasing book search for tens of thousands of out-of-copyright books

Tens of thousands of out-of-copyright books are set to become available online when Microsoft releases Live Search Books to beta on Wednesday.Live Search Books (books.live.com) is initially restricted to only include non-copyright books scanned from the collections of the British Library, the University of California and the University of Toronto. Partnerships with the New York Public Library and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine have also been announced. Live Search Books' "Search inside a book" feature allows users to search the full texts of scanned books. Copyrighted books will be added to the collection later, but only those submitted to Microsoft by publishers or authors. Microsoft has also updated the beta of Live Search Academic (academic.live.com) - adding millions of new articles, primarily bio-medical content. Live Search Academic now indexes thousands of academic journals in the computer science, engineering, physics, and bio-medical fields as well as theses and dissertations. more...

Move Blogger to the 'New' Google one

Ryanne and Jay, popular video bloggers, recently spoke to Googler Eric Case who has been part of the Blogger team at Googleplex for the past few years.Eric spoke about the recent issues (network outages) with Blogger, the new features of Blogger Beta, migration from old blogger to new blogger beta, and what's coming next. Must watch for all Blogger users and fans [just hit the play button]Some interesting points made by Eric during his 9:00 minute talk:1. Google is migrating Blogger from it's legacy architecture to Google scale solid architecture.2. Historically, Blogger would publish static files via FTP but with Blogger beta, they'll serve dynamic content - a technique pioneered by Livejournal. No more hitting the "Republish Entire Blog" button.3. The new dashboard page of Blogger 3.0 is more optimized for users with fewer blogs.4. All Google products will share the same account, i.e., login.5. When your blog is migrated from the old version to the new blogger, you get an email saying the conversion is done successfully. This should take a couple of minutes only.6. Blogger Support staff actively monitors the Blogger Help group for issues - so that's probably the best place to share your problems.7. Google is migrating users to Blogger beta is phases as migration puts lot of strain on old Blogger database and impacts the performance for existing users.8. After the migration is over, Google will bring RSS feed enclosure support in Blogger. Google will integrate Blogger with Google Video and Youtube. Not sure when yet.9. Blogger could have media specific Blog templates that support video blogging and podcasting directly.Download Eric Case Interview [Quicktime mov, 47 MB]