Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Social Software

Twitter has a lot of untapped potential in the world of play. A fast, nimble social network could spawn all kinds of cool games, but I don’t think it’s there yet. Spymaster, a new game that quickly flew up the ranks of Twitter’s trending topics this week, lets you play spy and assassinate your Twitter friends, but for those of us who aren’t playing, the notifications for it are pretty annoying.

You may have already received DMs from your friends asking you to join their spy rings, or seen level up announcements and assassination attempts posted under the #spymaster hashtag. There’s a way to turn the announcements off, but most people apparently haven’t found it yet. As for the game itself, you score points and gain power based on the number of people in your Twitter network who are also on Spymaster, and by completing missions or attacking other players.

Spymaster is in private beta right now, but if my Twitter list is any indication, it’s not that hard to get in.

Kill (and spam) your Twitter friends with Spymaster - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 31 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Business, Developer, Social Software

Facebook’s FBFund is a $10mil initiative to provide funding for startups that are doing promising things in the Facebook app or Facebook Connect area. Recently, 18 startups were chosen to receive a whole bunch of money and attend Facebook’s Rev09 incubator program this summer.

All 18 winners (and two non-profits, who can’t get a cut of the money due to the structure of FBFund) are listed on Facebook’s Developer Blog, but I want to highlight a few of the apps that look most likely to catch on in a big way. Nutshell Mail, which was featured on Download Squad back in February, consolidates all your social network subscription emails into one periodic digest, keeping your inbox clear. Sortuv finds local businesses that are “sortuv” like ones you already know and like. Gameyola is a platform for casual Flash games.

Do you think any of the FBFund projects will take off? Let us know which ones you love or hate in the comments.

Facebook announces winning apps in FBFund originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 29 May 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Productivity, Social Software, Search

With all the hype around Twitter as the future of search, it makes sense that someone would put together a search engine that combines Google results with results from social sites around the web. Enter SearchMerge. It’s basically just a text entry field and a selection of sites to search, including Twitter, Friendfeed and YouTube, but it has the potential to be very useful. Or, it would, if there were any apparent rhyme or reason to the order of the results.

A search for Download Squad turned up a Last.fm page, our website, a year-old Vimeo video, and a post about netbooks from February, in that order. The results were all relevant, but they could be sorted in a more logical way. SearchMerge is also fairly slow when you’re using it to search every available site. The real-time search option is neat, but suffers from the same long wait for results. It’s a great idea, but it has a long way to go in the implementation.

SearchMerge: search Google and social sites simultaneously originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 28 May 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Blogging, Social Software

If you use a lot of social networking sites, and different groups of your friends are scattered across all of them, it might be time to start a lifestream. AmpliFeeder is an open source platform that pulls in everything you share on other social sites and displays it in one convenient location. It works with tons of sites, including Twitter, Delicious, Upcoming, Last.fm and Facebook.

AmpliFeeder also has a handful of themes to choose from, and supports custom themes using XHTML and CSS. There are no hosted accounts, so you’ll have to find a place to put it, but it’s extremely easy to set up, once installed. Check out the video walkthrough on the documentation page for a step-by-step guide to getting AmpliFeeder up and running. If you need a solid, easy-to-use lifestreaming platform, this might be worth a look.

AmpliFeeder: open source lifestreaming originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 May 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

In a video Town Hall last week, the folks at Digg announced they were going to take a new approach to sharing Digg stories. That change started with the removal of the “shout” feature, used to promote your Digg posts to friends on the site. Instead of shouts, Digg now has sharing options including email, Twitter and Facebook.

I see a few likely effects of this. First, Digg will be able to draw in more traffic from these other popular social sites, rather than just promoting stories to people who are already active Diggers. Second, becoming a power user won’t be as much a matter of collecting contacts on Digg. This might go a long way toward making it a more Internet-wide enterprise, and spreading the power around on Digg. I think the main effect will come from adding Twitter and Facebook links, not from removing shouts, which weren’t the most effective tool on the site to begin with.

[via Appscout]

Digg gets rid of shouts, turns to Facebook and Twitter originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 May 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Blogging, Web services, Freeware, Social Software, web 2.0

Although there’s no doubt that Twitter is the current reigning social status update king of the hill, upstart FriendFeed is certainly a more than viable alternative. FriendFeed does everything Twitter can do and much, much more right out of the box, aggregating all of your feeds (including your Twitter stream) into a single unified online presence.

If you’re already using FriendFeed, you might be interested in Feedstats, which shows you statistics about just what it is you get up to online, at least in terms of what you are funneling through the FriendFeed service. It also shows statistics about which other FriendFeed users you tend to interact with most, and which ones you are most compatible with, in terms of liking the same content.

Of course, all of these statistics are drawn from FriendFeed’s openly available API, which means that you can snoop on your friends and see just what their habits are, as well. Or even better, check out a few A-list microbloggers to see just how much more social-networky than you they are.

Feedstats gives you stats on your FriendFeed usage originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

If you’ve used a file-sharing service that lets you upload files and send the link to a friend via email, you might appreciate FileTwt. It’s the same idea, but you pass the link along via a tweet or a direct message on Twitter.

In keeping with Twitter’s spirit of brevity — or maybe with FileTwt’s inevitable bandwidth costs — the max file upload is currently only 20mb. FileTwt is a brilliant idea for a couple of reasons, though.

Twitter can be a good broadcast and promotion mechanism, and sometimes you want to share a new design or a demo of some music you recorded with everyone who follows you on Twitter. Or maybe you have a friend who needs a file, and Twitter is the only way you two are connected. Tweeting can definitely be faster than sending email.

Share files via Twitter with FileTwt originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 26 May 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Fun, Games, Social Software, web 2.0, Web

It’s easy to add videos, music and images from around the Internet to your website, but what about games? Heyzap is a way to place any of over 12,000 casual Flash games on your website. It’s as simple as copying and pasting a widget code .

Heyzap bills itself as a way to engage with your audience and get them to spend more time on your site. This has an effect on advertising revenue for big players, but I’m not sure it’s the most appealing thing about Heyzap when you’re just a little guy. I think this could turn into something like the YouTube of games — instead of sending friends a link to the games you like, just post them right on your blog.

Embed Flash games on your site with Heyzap originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 25 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Audio, Social Software, Web

Last week “twitter for music” service Blip.fm announced that most of its music would be streaming from imeem. This week, the company added YouTube music videos, which not only greatly expands Blip.fm’s music library, it also gives users a reason to hang out on the web site rather than using third party clients like Blipster. Well, a tleast until someone develops a good desktop client that will let you send and receive updates, listen to music, and watch videos.

You can now use Blip.fm as a sort of music video search engine, whether you want to share songs with friends or not. If you do want to let people know what you’re watching or listening to, you can send messages with links to songs or videos with just a click. You can also link Blip.fm to your Twitter account so that your friends don’t even need to be signed up for Blip.fm to know that you harbor a secret Def Leppard addiction.

[via GigaOm]

Blip.fm adds YouTube videos originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 21 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here

Filed under: Social Software, Humor

“Don’t drink and tweet” is probably some of the best Twitter advice I can give you. But if you must post to Twitter while intoxicated, at least try to do it from DrunkTwt. DrunkTwt posts your intoxicated Twitter ramblings anonymously, using an enormous text field that you don’t have to be at all sober to click on.

Once your update is entered, it’ll show up in DrunkTwt’s Twitter stream, which you can follow if you’re interested in other users’ drunken antics. Because a hashtag is automatically entered, and to make sure your post fits, you’re limited to 115 characters on DrunkTwt.com, instead of the standard Twitter 140. They probably figure the target audience won’t notice anyway.

DrunkTwt: Tweeting while intoxicated originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 20 May 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

More: continued here