From the early days I’ve noted that the technology that Friendfeed created is great. Even though response times have slowled lately and now the service is going to become some sort of flower, the real-time nature and the ability to provide major page updates with no refresh are amazing. It’s the number two reason that Facebook acquired Friendfeed earlier this year.

One of the wishes I had was that Friendfeed would provide a forums version of their platform where publishers could run an in-house version. I thought this was the way Friendfeed could generate massive revenue. While that revenue stream is gone, I still have hope that the forum software providers were watching how Friendfeed worked and picked up on some of the elements for their own future versions.

For nearly a decade, I’ve purchased the vBulletin software for our HTMLCenter forums. The software has always worked well and (I think) it’s only $30 a year for updates after you buy a permanent license. Last week I received an email that vBulletin 4.0 is coming soon and that I can pre-order an upgrade now. The upgrade price is $130 for the full suite; no discount is provided on the forums-only version.

I headed over to the vBulletin site and I was pleasantly surprised. They have updated their logo and created a completely Web 2.0-ish website. Now this is going to get good, right? I mean certainly they have heard me and the others calling for something more “today” when it comes to a forums too.. right?

Looking through the screenshots, I am pretty disappointed. The screenshots look cleaner but nowhere near as smooth and quick as Friendfeed. Naturally vBulletin is super-robust when it comes to community management. I’d wonder though, how many of the vBulletin-powered forums really need that level of management — I know I don’t.

There are some new features including the ability to create a blog post or article from a forum comment. This is similar to the reblog feature from commenting service Disqus. I continue to give vBulletin high marks for customer service — every question I’ve had over the years has received a response very quickly.

What I don’t see on the features list is anything related to social sharing. Where are the buttons for Digg, Twitter, Yahoo Buzz, etc.? In the current version, social sharing is available via a plugin. I assume the same will be required for the 4.0 version.

I don’t want to take anything away from vBulletin and the 4.0 release. vBulletin is one of the best examples of local software and revenue models out there. While the service doesn’t get the love from the web 2.0 blogs, I’ve always been happy with it. Unlike some other software which we won’t name, I’ve never worried going to sleep when using vBulletin.

I will have a full in-depth review once I receive the software and work on the installation. I am really hoping that it looks and acts more “today” than previous versions of the forums software.

NY-based Frevvo is moving out of beta today. Frevvo is a form creation tool that helps make online form creation and data collection easy. Frevvo reminds me of Wufoo which seems to be the forms creator that is mentioned the most in discussion.

Frevvo has created a few sample mashups using Google docs and spreadsheet applications. Frevvo offers a basic version which will work for most users and an XML version for those who want very advanced functionality which will allow for tying into business applications. Forms can be embedded to gather user data. Drag and drop controls make the creation easy. It seems similar in some aspects to Visual Basic.

In my limited testing I found the app to work well but it’s certainly not for the most novice of users. It’s a business application that requires an analyst to use. The Wufoo interface seems much more polished and easy-to-use for consumer-facing form creation.

Frevvo can run as a hosted service or as a downloadable version. Pricing looks pretty standard and they actually do a great job of pushing users into a paid plan. I’ve written many times before about giving away so much for free that there’s no reason to pay. Frevvo handles this very well.

Lastly, I’d suggest that their name is a bit confusing – the two V’s together look like a W and how do you pronounce their name? Is it free-voh or freev-voh or something else?

Got a tip about a new opening at Apple. If you have wanted to work for Apple, this might be your chance. Looks like they want a front-end coder. I would probably apply if the position was in NYC :) The requisition is listed below.

CSS Developer for Apple Inc.

Fuel the future of apple.com Build projects that advance the experience for our customers while producing solutions that amplify the design of our innovative products. Collaborate with creative, editorial and planning teams to deliver superior work.

Do you live CSS? Breathe JavaScript? Dream in Photoshop layers? Join the Apple.com team and help us build one of the most popular destinations on the web. The usual communication/team player skills apply. We're passionate about the web and are looking for people crazy enough to do this for a living.

• Master of hand-coded HTML, CSS, DOM, and Javascript
• Expert in Web standards and cross-platform, cross-browser issues deployed on a large-scale, high-volume website
• Evolve concepts with design team from comp to template to final build
• Solid Photoshop and Illustrator slicing and optimization skills
• Strong visual and conceptual design sense
• Perl, Python, Subversion experience a plus

Please send an email with the subject "CSS Developer" and your resume attached to biki.berry@apple.com

As we sign on to more and more social networking services, maintaining all of the passwords can be a hassle. And some services have multiple logins (wink wink) and some require different types of passwords. It can be a pain. Clipperz hopes to bring peace and tranquility to this area.

Let me begin by saying I would never use a service like this for anything that includes personally identifyable information including banks, credit cards, mobile providers, etc. While Clipperz has, what appears to be, very intense security, I still have visions of the old days when services like this would be hacked and there went your information. Clipperz says they get around that by storing things locally. So what happens at a public terminal? I am not sure on that question.

With all of that said, Clipperz might be a perfect app for all of your social networking sites. Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc. The service only works in Firefox and they offer a bookmarklet for easy Clipperz'ing.

So what do you think? Would you trust a service like this with your sensitive site logins/passwords? Side note… I found out about Clipperz on a new blog called KillerStartups.

The next panel is called "How to Bluff your way in Web 2.0" by Andy Budd and Jeremy Keith. Coming out of a mediocre session previously, I was not expecting much. But Andy and Jeremy ROCKED THE HOUSE. One of the best sessions I have ever attended. Yes, it was a bit of poking fun, but it was serious too. Such a great session as the focus was on the content not the speakers. Really enjoyed it. So that's a word to the rest of the presenters/speakers, you have big shoes to fill. The focus on this session was to teach you how to be out in party and business scenes and appear like you are a Web 2.0 master. Here are my notes and pics (I really tried to capture everything and have a bunch of pics.):

Quick video with definition of Web 2.0 (40 seconds):

Opening remarks

• Web 2.0 is a fantasic area to bluff since no one knows what it means anyway.
• We will have you talking like Jason Fried in a few minutes.
• We will have you create a company that Yahoo will buy.

Four aspects of Web 2.0

• supports social interaction
• encourages user participation
• enhanced user experience
• and open data.

Must use handy buzzwords

• long-tail
• tipping point
• leverage
• Ajax
• Tagging

Popular Web 2.0 apps (some): flickr, technorati, plazes, Yelp, Meebo, twitter. There is a great Twitter drinking game.

To really fit in, find some obscure starups.

Some great conversation starters:

• What do you think of XYZ framework?
• Didn't I meet you at the TechCrunch party?
• I'm beta testing a great new app that will blow basecamp out of the water.

Misc items:

• Shows Carbonmade as a perfect Web 2.0 app – loads of colors and gradients and illustrated icons, lots of use of transparency and rounded corners.
• Everything is wet in web 2.0
• 3-D logos are where it's at
• Throw in your favorite typeface when you are out at a party
• With Web 2.0 it's all about giving A-list geeks toys. You should have microformats, rss, APIs.
• Two kinds of APIs, simple kind is called REST, the tougher alternative is SOAP
• Two APIs = mashup
• Most common mashup uses maps = most common one is the ChicagoCrime.org, shows overplot and Gawker stalker
• Must have Ajax'y goodness – use moo.fx for quick tutorials

Shows TechCrunch and Snap Previews as a joke of good mashup

To build a good Web 2.0 app you need:
Domain name help:

• Drop the e in any er words
• You could use .us or .tv
• Sub domains rock!
• Add "get" in front

You need a cool logo

Then setup a mysterious homepage and a blog to talk about everything around the app

Talks about CrazyEgg and it's excellent signup page.

Then you think of a concept

• Think of an old idea, add tagging and social network = flickr
• Take a site like Digg or YouTube and make another one
• Put two apps together: Digg plus Flickr = Dickr
• Build it on the cheap
• Hire a 15yr old cheap kid – pay in pizza
• Spend all money on the design
• Demo – pay for a demo at a large conference
• Wait for Yahoo or Google to buy you – use the bluffing tactics in the parties

Social side of Web 2.0

• Starts with the wisdom of crowds book
• The greater internet fuckwad theory = normal person + anonymity + audience = fuckwad
• You want community – like a lunatic asylum
• Loves Milk & Two
• Must have ratings for the social network
• Must have tagging
• Must have bookkeeping
• Must have comments

TWERQ is a tabbed search engine which has a lot of time-saving features. Built on the Google search engine, it is like Google 2.0.

Some of the time-saving features include:

• Bulk search – search for multiple terms at once and open them in separate tabbed windows
• Forward/backward term search – using the bulk search, you can pull a term from the front or back into each bulk search term
• RSS feed search
• Page place holding – TWERQ remembers where you were so you don’t have to start from scratch each time
• Quicktags – these make searching easier
• Firefox plugin – make all of the TWERQ options available as an extension

They have several Flash videos that explain how to best maximize your use of TWERQ:
http://www.twerq.com/demos/qdemos.htm

I think TWERQ is really an all-around great product. My only concern will be with its acceptance rate. People know to go to google.com. How do you get those same people to start to change their thinking and come to TWERQ instead. I think the videos can help gain acceptance as they put them on YouTube as well.

I recently took a look at GradeFix, and found it to be really nice. At first I was kind of skeptical on how much it would help, but it did help a lot! So basically what it is, is a schedule keeper for all of your school work. Whether it be homework, reading, studying for a quiz, or studying for an exam, GradeFix will organize everything for you.

You can register for a free account here. Though there are some limitations on free accounts, you can have up to 10 active items on your schedule, as opposed to the paid plan, where you can pay $5 a month for unlimited. Though you may be saying $5 is a bit too much, in my opinion, it's worth it. But you can work with the free plan fairly well.

So here's how it works. Once you sign up, you go to gradefix.com. Then towards the top there's a "My Account" link, and it will bring you to the dashboard. On the dashboard, you will have a box which is full of dates, items, and the time you should spend on that item. To the right of that, there is the box where you can enter new items.

The item display is really straight forward. It a has alternating colors, so it's easy to read, and makes things a lot faster when you're trying to get things done fast. Another thing to the right is the filter control. You can set the filter to filter out a certain amount of days, type of work, and even specific classes. The second you select something on the filter, it will change the results in the display box.

This, I'm assuming, is Ajax, without all the cool effects. Also on that note, the design is kind of bland, but it's simple and easy to use.

So if you're looking for a better way to get organized for class, this is the tool for you. It will take all the stress, of keeping track of assignments, right away. It works for me, so I'm sure it could work for just about anyone out there, that goes to school.