Tag Archives: Free

There is no limit to the quantity of iPhone apps out there. From apps that make silly noises to apps that calculate your tip on a dinner out, the selection is almost limitless. A new app, Zoetica, launched today offers a solution for those interested in the nonprofit world (an interest of mine). The Zoetica iPhone app aggregated nonprofit tech and social change blog posts, making sure the content is at your fingertips at all times. Continuing with the nonprofit theme, the application is free of cost in the iTunes store.

What makes Zoetica different than other news aggregators is that Beth Kanter, Social Media and Nonprofit expert, hand selects the blog feeds that are ultimately aggregated into the app, ensuring the user will receive the most relevant information in the space. The app was created through a partnership with AppMakr and is in itself an example of the possible use of such a tool for a nonprofit. The service makes app development possible for groups with limited budgets and limited tech skills, something many nonprofits can use. AppMakr offers different price points that allow for almost any marketing budget to include an app in the plan.

For more information about the application as well as possible uses for nonprofits, please visit Beth Kanter’s blog

Search optimization is pretty important stuff for web publishers. Especially as the market moves more towards the web. As far as advertising and brand engagement, it’s increasingly necessary for publishers to keep tabs on the behavior of their web sites. Yield Software‘s search optimization service addresses these needs, and now it’s doing so for free.

A new option from Yield Software gives you a taste of what the company can provide to help with your website behavior needs. Features include content recommendations and inbound link building and outbound link repair. Also included is info on URL structure and content, as as well as data on page accessibility and performance.

With these features you can see a range of options that Yield Software has with its premium service, which combines several aspects of web page monitoring and analysis. Yield Software tracks all the metrics, lets you set up various actions to be run automatically, and also recommends what areas can be improved for optimizing your web page. Creating a central hub for managing all of this is where Yield Software aims to stand out from the rest.

Having raised $6 million in funding from Draper Fisher Jurveston and launching its flagship product about a year ago, Yield Software has also spent the last few months building out the options around its service. In creating a central operations tool for website publishers, Yield Software is now looking to improve upon its own products and services to become more prevalent in its space. Yield Software has been hailed as a pretty powerful tool for what it does, and the automation of its services is a main focus of its overall goals.

As we push towards a web-based market for things like content-sharing, marketing, advertising, brand engagement, research and education, the amount of content to be published and searched for on the web will only continue to increase. While Google, Bing and other search engines look to compile all of that shared information in order to make it easier for you to find, Yield Software appeals to publishers and small businesses to make it easier for you to leverage those search tools in order to increase your visibility.

The move towards contextual search has also raised the bar for services like Yield Build, as they must also seek ways in which to provide publishers with the tools necessary for becoming a highly trafficked web resource. Search engines are looking to provide direct answers instead of mere links that reroute us all across the web. That means the very nature of the content will change, pulling its context out and shifting the way in which we consume and interact with our search results. Staying on top of the continuously changing face of search marketing is a tough task. Preserving your productivity and your sanity almost requires a tool like Yield Software.

by Michelle Lentz

If you’re not familiar, Jott is a voice-to-text transcription service. I used it heavily to send notes, via email, to myself while I was out and about. Jott was much safer than texting or emailing myself while driving. I also used it to send notes, voice to text, to my husband and other folks.  Jott offers additional services, such as posting to Twitter and your blog just by sending a voice message. The Jott app is one of my favorite iPhone apps.

Back in autumn, Jott cut back on their free offerings when they came out of beta. Since then, around 30% of Jott’s users have opted for the Premium, $4/month option. But now, it looks like they are dropping all of their free services.

Jott CEO John Pollard told Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) that the free version of Jott will end on February 2. “The terrible advertising market,” he says, “means every customer has to pay their own way from now on. Customers will need to pay $4/month to continue the service, the current price for a premium account.” This includes users of the iPhone application.

I suspect that this may be happening with more and more Web 2.0 applications. Brace yourself for an interesting year.

__
Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology
Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

Over on his New York Times Tech blog, David Pogue has listed a couple of free downloads, just in time for Christmas. They include PC Pandora (which lets you spy on those using your computer) and an original Christmas music set from sampling company Garritan.

There’s more in the comments too, which is where you always find gems. So far, you’ll find Mac Heist’s Giving Tree and Jaduka. I’m sure the list will grow.

Happy holidays!

__
Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology
Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

Thanks to Brian’s own Twitter feed, I’ve discovered that its possible to make Twitter backgrounds with Powerpoint or Keynote. You don’t have to rely on Twitter’s own backgrounds or your lacking graphic design skills.

One of Brian’s tweets led me to Thomas Carillo’s The Closet Entrepreneur, where we’re offered Keynote and Powerpoint templates for Twitter backgrounds. Cool, yes?

I think the Twitter background is a pretty underrated thing. It’s a great way to advertise yourself and your personal (or professional) brand in graphics and using more than 140 characters if you want. I’ve seen some rather kick-ass Twitter backgrounds. It’s nice to know there’s a template out there that helps me create a more professional appearance without my having to actually know the pixel sizes for the various columns and rows.

Thomas also points us to the Extended Twitter background collection on Flickr, which is impressive on its own and may serve to inspire you.

Happy Thanksgiving!


Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email at michelle[at]writetech.net, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.