SpeedDate.com and Meebo have teamed up to a launch a speed dating application within Meebo. As a way to market the service, they chose eight celebrity bloggers and had them engage in a speed dating session. The result is pretty comical, especially Wired’s Aaron Rowe, who in my opinion was the star of the show.

Google is currently in the first phase of testing for a new tool called Knol, which stands for a unit of knowledge. The goal for the project is “to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it.” They claim that one of they key ideas behind Knol is to highlight the authors, whose names they feel have been omitted from an evolving Web up to this point. Also, they believe that knowing who wrote the article will allow users to make better use of its content.

At the heart of it, a Knol is simply a Web page, with Google providing all the necessary tools for writing, editing, etc., and writers simply needing only to write. Additionally, Knol features community-like tools, such as comments, questions, edits, additional content, ratings and more. Finally, authors of Knols can include ads on their content, and Google will provide a significant revenue share from the proceeds with the author.

Here is a screen shot of Knol (click on image to view complete Knol) :

One can’t help but ponder the future of Wikipedia in the event of a successful Knol project from Google. While I don’t think Wikipedia is going anywhere anytime soon, Knol can certainly chip away at its market share. A large gripe regarding Wikipedia, particularly in the academic community (which is probably one of its largest user bases) , is the lack of any authoritative sources. Time after time my university professors would not allow Wikipedia as a source because they claimed it lacked any scholar validity. Knol would change that, as the articles are written by authoritative sources, and their names are plastered right across the page like a book. In my opinion this ought to be Google’s target niche if they want to enjoy some rapid success with Knol. Also, it will be interesting to see where Knol pages show up in Google SERPS, as typically Wikipedia pages do rather well and can be found on the first page.

In any event, it’s more information and knowledge for us as end-users, so it’s really a win-win no matter who is number one.

Yesterday Google released an updated version of it’s Gmail Chat client which now includes AIM support. All I can say is, finally! There have been rumors about AIM-Gtalk integration for some time, and although this isn’t true integration (to the point where someone logged in to AIM can chat with someone logged into Gtalk), it’s certainly a large step in the right direction.

To use AIM in Gmail, simply click on the upside-down triangle next to “Options” in the Chat section, and select “Sign into AIM”. A pop-up window will appear where you must enter your AIM screen name and password. Once you’ve entered your information and have been authenticated, all of your AIM contacts will appear amidst your Gtalk contacts and you can select any of them to chat with.

Here are some screen shots I captured:

1) Select option to Sign into AIM.

2) Enter AIM details.

3) Buddy list of both AIM and Gtalk contacts. (Notice the AIM and Gtalk contacts intermingled)

Placely, a social networking Web site tailored toward frequent travelers, launched into public beta two weeks ago. The social travel space, to my knowledge, is one that has yet to become overly saturated, and Placely looks geared up to snag a chunk of the market share.

When you first log in you are taken to a dashboard page, where you can see who is traveling today, who you can meet today (i.e. who is in your area today), and who is traveling soon; all within your own network. At the time of this writing all members are inserted into a Placely Beta network in order to facilitate user interaction and assist users in discovering the features of the site.

The user profiles found on Placely are pretty standard in terms of social networking, although the Ajax functionality on many of the features certainly makes usability a pleasure. Of particular interest, however, is the ability to set privacy levels on different features such as your travel schedule, home location, network, career profile, personal profile, photos and age.

The MyNetwork section shows all of your Placely friends, and can be filtered by various categories. Additionally, you can monitor friend requests and search for/invite other friends. My favorite thing in this section, however, is the “Where Are They Today?” Google Map, where your friends appear as pegs and you can click them to see where they are currently.

The groups section is similar to something you would find on other social networking sites, however Placely throws in the same Google Map feature from the MyNetwork section to allow you to see where the members of the group are today.

Placely’s TravelCal is really the lifeblood of the site. It’s where you go to add trips — single or multiple destination — manage your entire travel schedule, and arrange meetups with friends based upon where you’re traveling on a given day. When you click on one of your trips a search is pre-populated with your location and dates, and Placely will tell you if anyone in your network will be at that location on that date. The search also features a distance drop down, so you can expand your query as desired.

The MeetUp section is basically the search from the TravelCal, but expanded to allow you to enter whatever you like for query criteria. It also adds a Category option so you can search for a particular group of friends.

I am pretty impressed with how easy Placely has made it to manage your friends with your travel calendar. It’s certainly a useful tool for the frequent traveler who spends a lot of time in different places and wants to visit friends. The site states that it is in constant development and improving daily, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see enhancements to the current feature set or even deployment of additional capabilities.

My only concern with Placely is the user base. It’s a great tool targeted at a great niche, but can it get a large enough user base to be successful? The majority of Internet users already belong to a social network and aren’t looking to try something new, especially if their friends aren’t on it. This will be the major challenge for Placely. If it can overcome this obstacle, then I believe that with the features available it can be successful.

Alternatively, as some final food for thought, perhaps they could develop a Placely Facebook App or some sort of Open Social integration, as this would indirectly allow millions of users on other social networking sites to interact with and use the site. Maybe even some sort of widget that bloggers like myself can embed into their sidebars; or, and this is a real stretch, packaging their software for resale to large corporations with thousands of weekly travelers.

If you’re a frequent traveler with friends who travel frequently as well, I would definitely encourage you to check out Placely. Here are some screen shots I captured while using the site:

1) Home Page

2) Dashboard

3) Profile (owner)

4) Profile (visitor)

5) MyNetwork

6) Groups

7) TravelCal

8 ) MeetUp

9) Upload Photo (cool Ajax functionality)

We are painfully reminded every day when we venture out of our homes that the iPhone does not have 3G technology. The EDGE network is brutally slow and painful and there simply is no way to sugarcoat that harsh reality. But wait! All hope is not lost my fellow iPhoners, as we do have a little feature called Wireless Fidelity, better known as WiFi (and no, I didn’t need to Wikipedia that ).

Many features on the iPhone, most notably Safari and Mail, operate such that the greater the available bandwidth the greater the experience of using the application. So it becomes important to know how much you got coming down the pipe back and forth between your iPhone and wireless router. Enter iNetwork Test.

The Web site iNetwork Test exists to perform exactly this function, to tell you how fast your WiFi network speed is currently operating. The site is a piece of cake to use, simply navigate to inetworktest.com and click the “Start Test” button. Then just wait. The quicker your connection the quicker the test will complete. Once the test completes, you select whether you’re operating via WiFi or EDGE, and the Web site records your score.

My WiFi network speeds were as follows:

1st attempt - 925 kbps
2nd attempt - 940 kbps
3rd attempt - 841 kbps
4th attempt - 894 kbps
5th attempt - 910 kbps

Once your score has been recorded you can click on the “Results” button to see how your score relates to the average EDGE and/or WiFi speeds. At the time of this writing, the average EDGE speed is 208 kbps, and the average WiFi speed is 798 kbps, putting me a bit above the average — gotta love that fiber optic pipe.

And to the wise guys out there, yes, it can detect if you’re not using an iPhone:

iNetwork Test for iPhone

2659.3 kbps
Not an iPhone

Have you ever been browsing through << enter trendy social networking site here >> and seen a friend’s photo that made them look infinitely better than they usually do? If so, chances are high that the photo was touched up using image editing/manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop.

While I do not condone activities like this that promote a sense of “false advertisement” if you will, I do believe that everyone should be on a level playing field in terms of being able to dress up like Halloween and portray themselves as nothing like the original. Luckily, for the non-Photoshop-skilled of the Internet, a new Web site has arisen to help you look as least like yourself as possible.

Pixoo, which is still in private beta, has dubbed itself the “profile picture enhancement service.” Come the end of this month, you too will be able to have yourself airbrushed like one of Hugh Hefner’s delectable bunnies for the low, low price of $20.

As far as the available modifications to your photo, you can specify just about anything that you want done, from skin color to clothing to setting and much more. About 15-20 improvements are made to each photo, and the turn around time is typically around 24 hours — although Pixoo staff will continue to work with you until you are satisfied with your fake self.

Their Web site has no examples posted and only contains a brief introduction to the service and a form to sign up for the private beta. To see an example of Pixoo, head on over to Techcrunch where one of the bloggers submitted founder Michael Arrington’s photo.

I think this is a ridiculous idea. If someone is self-conscious to the point where they’d pay $20 for a costume, they ought to seriously reconsider publishing their photo in such an open environment.

Google Blogoscoped is reporting that Google has begun rolling out Gmail 2.0, the latest and greatest version of its popular Gmail web application. You’ll know if you have access to the new Gmail 2.0 if you see options for “newer version” or “older version” in the upper right-hand corner when logged into your Gmail account.

In terms of the new features and functionality available within Gmail 2.0, the system supposedly runs much quicker, and there is a new, much more detailed “Contacts” section. The new Gmail Contact Manager includes the option to import photos from Picasa Web.

It is worth mentioning that the new features/functionality described above are merely from preliminary reports, and that there may be additional, undiscovered as of yet enhancements included with Gmail 2.0.

Here are some screen shots of the new version of Gmail:

Apple has launched an official directory of iPhone and iPod Touch web applications. The directory, which currently includes over 200 third-party Web-based iPhone/iPod Touch-optimized applications, breaks down into categories such as Games, News, Sports, and Weather. Each application offers a description, developer name, web address, and date of inclusion to the directory.

The iPhone and iPod Touch web applications directory can be found at apple.com/webapps. Those interested in developing their own applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch can read this guide on how to get started.

I for one am very excited about this directory. Although I’ve used a number of the applications included in the current directory, there are many I’ve yet to check out and more will constantly be added.

Now if only they’d let us write non-Web-based applications…

A new Facebook application has emerged called Mac Lover (Facebook login required) which allows all Apple fans — from casual iPod user to hardcore fanboy — to show off what Apple products they own and/or which ones they’d like to own. Products that users own are placed onto an iHave list, whereas wish list Apple goods go onto an iWant list. The products then appear in a box in your profile for all your friends to admire.

Fanboyishness aside, the application is pretty well built (although it doesn’t seem to be complete). Products are listed by type on various tabs and images are dragged around on the page and can be reordered however you desire.

Here are some screen shots of the Mac Lover application and its integration with my Facebook profile:

1) Mac Lover Facebook Application (edit view)

2) Mac Lover in my Mini-Feed

3) Mac Lover showing the goods in Facebook profile

Beginning Friday of this week, LinkedIn will start allowing individuals to upload photos to their profiles. The business-oriented site has been photo-free for the past four years, adopting a more conservative tone; however they claim that the most demanded feature from users was profile photos, so they have decided to give in.

LinkedIn’s Adam Nash says that many people recognize friends and colleagues more easily by face than by name, and that photos will provide for “richer professional connections online.” While that’s probably true, I can’t help but think of the negative repercussions that profile photos could have on such a wonderful tool as LinkedIn.

One of LinkedIn’s three main features is the potential for career advancement, or the ability to “discover inside connections when you’re looking for a job or new business opportunity.” In the past individuals have been able to find new or better jobs on LinkedIn based on their experience and skillset (and rightfully so). Adding profile pictures completely changes the game, as now decisions will in many cases be influenced on personal preferences. If a manager is looking at two profiles for potential candidates and finds one to be more attractive than the other, you can bet he or she will take that into account when making their decision. It’s unfortunate and it sucks, but it’s the way the world works.

I know it’s far too late for LinkedIn to reconsider this decision, so I will wish them the best in implementing this new feature. The good news, they have developed a pretty stringent array of privacy settings for profile photos, whereby a user can make their photo visible from everyone down to no one. The bad news, they have begun the trek away from the business-like and professional environment that created their 14 million user base.