OpenSocial API Blog: New social features launched on opensocial.org

OpenSocial API Blog: New social features launched on opensocial.org

It seems like a no-brainer to create a social network for the OpenSocial community, so we've used Ning to add some social features to www.opensocial.org. Here are some of the cool new things you can do on the site:
Run OpenSocial apps! Since Ning supports OpenSocial, you can add apps to your profile; including useful tools like the OpenSocial Dev App or any apps you've written yourself. Use your profile to show off your work!
Chat with other developers to get help or raise issues in real time.
Learn about upcoming OpenSocial events (or run one yourself!), then share your photos or videos with the community.
Of course, opensocial.org is still the place to find OpenSocial tutorials, official specs, and other resources.Join the community at www.opensocial.org and let us know what you think!

Google Code Blog: New! Caption files for Google Developer Videos

Google Code Blog: New! Caption files for Google Developer Videos

Last year, YouTube launched a Captions and Subtitles feature. In addition to launching a new playlist for captioned Developer Videos, we're also kicking off an Open Source project to host caption files that anyone can reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons 3.0 BY license. We're hoping that developers will come up with interesting uses for caption data, once it's in the public domain. You can use transcripts as a corpus for training speech-to-text algorithms or testing applications that read and write caption files. Or, combine timepoint data with YouTube's URL support to jump to a specific point in a video.Caption tracks make YouTube videos accessible to a wider audience. For example, try a search on [RESTful protocol YouTube] and you'll find search results from the captions on Joe Gregorio's recent talk. While we're delighted that Kevin Marks' captioned English accent can be more easily understood by Americans, we've also translated the caption files and provided tracks in multiple languages for a few of our captioned videos. For all other videos, YouTube can perform Auto-Translate on caption text using Google Translate technology.

Social Blogger Community & Blog Directory // BlogCatalog

Social Blogger Community & Blog Directory // BlogCatalog
BlogCatalog is more than just a social community for bloggers; we are one of the largest blog directories on the internet. Whether you are looking to search blogs, connect with bloggers, learn more about blogging, or promote your own blog, BlogCatalog is for you. Thanks.

Yahoo! News - Can all that Twitters turn to gold amid the gloom? by AP: Yahoo! Tech

Can all that Twitters turn to gold amid the gloom? by AP: Yahoo! Tech:
"SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter Inc. has spawned a new way to communicate by limiting messages to 140 keystrokes. So here's a way to describe the Internet's latest craze within Twitter's space restrictions:
It's a potluck of pithy self-expression simmering with whimsy, narcissism, voyeurism, hucksterism, tedium and sometimes useful information.
One vital ingredient has been missing from the mix so far — revenue. That raises questions about whether the nearly 3-year-old service can make the leap from intriguing fad to sustainable business.
Twitter intends to start testing ways to make money this spring. And co-founder Evan Williams promises it won't drive away the more than 6 million people who have set up accounts on the unconventional communications network.
'We don't see any reason why this can't be a very large and profitable entity,' said Williams, the San Francisco-based company's chief executive. 'We have enough traffic on our Web site that we could put ads on there and maybe we could make enough to pay our bills, but that's not the most interesting thing we can do.'"

Williams, 36, won't say what he has in mind besides selling ads, but he and the handful of other people who own privately held Twitter seem confident the mystery strategy will pay off — even as a devastating recession destroys much-larger companies.
Just three months ago, Twitter rejected a $500 million takeover offer from an even bigger phenomenon, Facebook Inc., the owner of the world's largest online hangout.

How to Make Money With Google AdSense

The only costs you should incur in the beginning is your web hosting and domain name. The costs range from site to site but you can get a domain between $7 and $15/yr and hosting is usually between $3 and $10/month. You can create a website at any age, but obviously you need access to a credit card to purchase the domain name and hosting. Although, some affiliate programs like Google AdSense have age requirements (18 I believe)