Scopetech

Hey all, just want to let everyone know we’re going on hiatus for a while. Why? Well, our site has been doing great, as you can see by this chart, but, we want to offer more. That’s the long and short of it.

We’re looking to develop a better site, bring in more people to contribute and offer you, the reader an all around better experience. For those of you subscribed via RSS, I ask that you leave us in there, so when we are back you’ll see us pop up. Until then, thanks to everyone supporting and hope to see you in the future as we develop a better site!

Shvoong Homework is a peculiarly named, privately owned and funded web application that aims to help students keep track of their class notes and homework and share with friends. It’s part of Shvoong, a site that featurs summaries, reviews and short essays on a majority of topics.

The site claims to have 120, 000 registered users worldwide and supports 34 languages, hoping to expand with Shvoong Homework.

Timetable

TheTimetable feature of the site enables users to create a timetable for multiple schedules, such as personal and academic obligations. The timetable is linked to their “notebook” on the site and allows for easy access between the two. The timetable will also send alert emails students for upcoming events.

My Notebook

Students can create multiple notebooks, allowing students to write homework or notes for each subject. Notbook size is unlimited and features the uploading of word and .txt documents. Not everyone will be using these formats, so the site should consider more formats for upload.

The site is really pushing for this application to be used it seems, as they’re having an essay competition for American high schools from grades 9 - 12. Students will vote for the best essay on the topic “If you were elected President of the United States, which issue would you work on first?” How democratic this will be is left to be seen since I can’t see students in grades 9-12 reading through multiple essays on the same topic to find the one they like best.

The site is obviously going after a different market: school children. Shvoong may have to approach schools and pitch the idea of using this tool to them. I think it could very well be useful for students, but I’m not sure how students are going to find this and if they will be so inclined to use it.

Digital Inspiration has a story on bringing in your Orkut account into Facebook. All you need is the URL of your Orkut account and you can import the data. The first issue I’m thinking - how secure is your Orkut account? I’ve never used the service, but I can only hope and assume that you can adjust privacy settings preventing people you don’t want to see your account from doing so. The second thing that comes to mind - does anyone really need a social network inside a social network? Isn’t that a bit meta?

We’re taking a look at Wixi, which has been gaining a lot of attention recently.

What is it?

Wixi is sort of like a WebOS, what sites like MyBooo and Jooce are trying to be.

How does it work?

After logging in, users are taken to their own “desktop” if you want to call it that. The long and short of it is that it’s pretty much a virtual desktop through your browser. You can choose a wallpaper, create folders, upload music and pictures, etc.

You can check out other people’s Wixi page, who are your friends, and copy their files to your page if you want. To get a decent idea of it, you’ll definitely have to try it out yourself. If you don’t see a need for an Operating System inside your browser you probably don’t need one. Sites like these seem to be more confusing than anything.

While the use of these sites is to allow you to access your data anywhere, having to figure out a whole different WebOS may not be too appetizing to some, especially when you can use a simplified site like box.net to store your files online if needed. With that said, if you think the WebOS is something you might be interested in, I’d suggest checking out Jooce, which we’ll take a look at more in the future. It has a bit more polish. For example, right clicking with Jooce allows you to perform desktop-like actions, Wixi does not. Maybe when Wixi launches in December we’ll see changes, but so far in the WebOS race Jooce may come out on top. That’s not to say I can’t see people getting into Wixi more - they have their own vibes to them and using Wixi or Jooce may be akin to using Opera or Firefox.

All Facebook has a story on updating your Facebook status with Twitter updates. I’ve always thought that Twitter could be a good buy for Facebook considering there could be a totally different community based on just the updating status. Then again, maybe not. This will certainly be of use to some people who use Twitter religiously.

Webcosmo is a craigslist competitor developed by a single person using ASP .NET. Posting classifieds is 100% free and features just about any country or state in the United States you could think about, with tons of areas to post in. If you’ve been looking for a site other than craigslist to post classifieds, Web Cosmo may be an interesting alternative to try out, given most other classified sites usually have some cost attached.

What is it about digg that makes me want to stay? It has to be that it’s the first site of its kind (you can’t consider del.icio.us like it) that has me stuck on it. Or maybe it’s the Kevin Rose effect. Who doesn’t like Kevin? Especially after the whole TechTV thing that some people won’t let go, not that it’s a bad thing.

Thoof is a digg-clone that makes me scratch my head. It’s a site where, get this, people submit stories but it’s better than digg because it avoids the whole “angry mob” effect controlling what gets on the front page. So, I’m guessing that’s a spin on “users vote for what they want” and instead they have no real say, or maybe anything that is submitted goes to the front page. Whatever their whole shtick is - the bottom line is the site doesn’t make me want to leave digg. Why?

1. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of content. Chalk it up as a “clean” interface or a clear indication that nobody uses this site.

2.  No categories, just tags. Wait, so how do I just get entertainment stories? What about world news? This is one time when tags to way more harm than good. If digg had tags instead of categories it would be chaotic. Digg, even without tags, allows you to really get news on the topics you care about, customizing your experience to show just what you want. No categories categorically blows.

3. Stories constantly loading. What is it that when I go to the site and scroll down it’s still loading more stories? Pretty annoying “feature” of the Web 2.0 generation.

There is no real incentive to use the site. I have no real thought provoking analysis to add, it pretty much is uninspiring.

Global Grind is a “custom web 2.0 home page solution for the hip hop generation.” What it really is, is taking one feature out of Netvibes, namely, making a customized page and turning it into a full-fledged website. We’ve seen the same sort of thing with Wevent - making a full website out of something someone else does. For some reason I also want to say it’s done better.

Maybe their target audience are those people who want to use something but netvibes, but rather the words “global” and/or “grind” be in the URL they have to go to, to get to the site. Long story short, it’s a Netvibes clone and considering you have the Netvibes Universe, you’re probably better off going with Netvibes.

Revision3 has pulled the plug on InDigital, their gadget review show by Hahn Choi, known for his work on G4 and TechTV for Fresh Gear. In the final episode, a sad looking Choi stated that he was given an ultimatum: move to L.A or contribute to the network in another capacity. While says he’s still weighing his options, fans are speculating that he may go on to continue the show on his own. Regardless, based on the responses on the InDigital forum so far fans are less than pleased.InDigital will be replaced by Tekzilla which premieres Friday, September 28th and will have Jessica Corbin, former InDigital co-host as well as contribution by former co-host Wil Wheaton. We’ll be looking forward to seeing what Tekzilla is offering and all signs point to good things.

We’ve looked at Contrastream in the past, a site helping people find better independent music, and liked it. News coming in is that the site now has updates worth taking note of.

Audio Previews - Now when looking at albums to vote on, you can get a preview of the music, something the site should have launched with.

Updated profiles - Users can now message each other. A standard feature of any social network now.

Revamped New Release Section.

To see all the new features, check out the site’s blog which has the rundown on all the changes.

Read More