Find Motive

Inform Technologies, based in New York, has released a new service targeting news websites. This new service will inject links into the article which will direct you to a search results page with relevant content to the article from sources all over the web including blogs and audio/video content. Large search engines like Google and Yahoo have been gaining on this market and Inform’s plan is to help news sites win back some of their readership by providing more relevant content to a news article.

Inform’s new technology automates the process and makes it easy for news sites to manage their sources. I was shown a demo of Inform’s control panel in a conference call with Inform on Friday and it seemed fairly simple to manage.

The service is live on News OK, an Oklahoma based newspaper, with more sites planned to go live soon which include: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, The New York Sun, The Huffington Post, The Deal LLC, and NameMedia.

SayNow, based in Palo Alto, is a new beta service that lets bands(or anyone) connect with people through voice messaging, while keeping your number private. SayNow will call your number and prompt you to leave a message after the beep, then the receiver of this message will be notified by text message, email, and/or phone when a new message arrives. Also SayNow can notify you when your favorite artist has posted a new voice message for you to listen to. Way cool if you ask me.

Try It Out!
Just enter your phone number below (don’t worry it will be kept private from me and the world), then SayNow will call your number and you can record a voice message that I can listen to. Come on you know you want too!

Bigcartel is another turn-key eCommerce solution for the non tech-savvy who need just a simple shopping cart to sell their products with. Unlike Shopify, Bigcartel does not charge a commission fee on sales, but instead offers a monthly pricing plan to suit your needs. This also includes a free plan which limits features and the number of products you can have in your shopping cart. Bigcartel’s target market is geared more towards clothing, arts & crafts, record labels, and bands trying to sell merchandise, but can be used in any market.

Its great to see simple, easy to use products emerging in the eCommerce industry. Bigcartel and Shopify are much needed players in a bloated industry.

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37signals, the creators of the very popular project management system Basecamp, has released a new Voicenotes feature for Backpack. This new feature allows you to leave short voice messages on your Backpack page by calling via any phone and recording your message just like you would with any voice mail system. The Voicenote is then displayed on your Backpack page with a nifty little flash player that you can play, pause, rewind, and even save the note to your computer as an mp3.

I love 37signals and their products. They have always inspired me as a company and Jason Fried is the man.

Scanr is a web based service which takes high resolution images sent to them via email and converts them into a “scanned” PDF document. The resulting PDF is then sent back to your email account. If the image you send does not have a high enough resolution, Scanr will notify you with a text message. Currently you can convert white boards, documents, and business cards.

I can see this service being very helpful for people who travel. Need a digital version of a contract and your no where near a traditional scanner? No problem, just send it to ScanR and you will have a new shiny PDF waiting for you in your inbox. Scanr is definitely one of my top favorite web apps.

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This is hilarious. I’ve seen videos by these guys before and they are good. I really love the tie stapled to the desk scene…priceless. Hopefully this will make your day a little better.

Jumpcut is like YouTube on steroids. With Jumpcut you can edit your videos right from their website with a very easy(relative to other video editing apps) flash based interface. JumpCut lets you mash video clips together, add audio, add effects, and if you must step away from the computer, Jumpcut will let you save your creation and come back later and finish it. Videos can be kept private or made public. Any video on the site can be cloned and edited, unless restricted by the publisher.

I’ve already spent a good amount of time playing with Jumpcut and found that it is very addicting. Its probably one of the coolest web apps I’ve seen this year. You must check it out.

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I have a few questions for my readers:

1. What sort of pricing model would you prefer for paid music downloads?
A) Fixed price. Same for every song.
B) Variable pricing, based on a songs popularity.

2. What is a fair price for paid downloads from independent artists?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on these questions. Thank you in advance.

Find someone cheap and reliable to fix the dent in my car. I hit a gate…yeah it was intense.

I’ve added a “Digg This” image link at the end of the article page. If the article has already been dugg it will display the digg counter. Here is an example of this feature. I’d love to hear some feedback on the new digg feature, good or bad.