I have tried a large number of social networking tools, and have remained unimpressed. Twitter’s desktop tools fail to astonish me, and selections for other tools are even more sparse. I have also tried a number of combined IM clients, such as Trillian, Pidgin, and Miranda, and have remained unimpressed. Although, Trillian Astra may be a whole other story. Now, I have found a new tool, called Digsby, and this one has impressed me.

So what is Digsby? Disgby is a instant messenger client that not only combines all other messenger clients into one (except a few), but also combines social networking, email, and the new Facebook chat. Currently, there is no combined email monitoring/social network monitoring tool apart from Digsby, but that will likely change soon. Most combined clients focus on the IM system, allowing one tool to connect to multiple networks. This is nice, because then you can view all your friends and such in one location.

Instead of segregating each service to its own area, like the other tools do, Digsby mixes them together, removing barriers. You can still tell who is on what network, by a symbol added to their picture, but they are all listed in one large contact group. You can easily start chats with people on multiple networks by double clicking their name, no need to change windows or panes. Furthermore, if your friend is on multiple networks, you can combine all their contacts into one. Clicking that will allow you to start messaging them on whatever networks of which they are online.

One thing that one client does (AIM) that is quite nice is that it pops up messages when you get a new message, and has an input box on those messages so you can reply to the message. Digsby does this as well, but for every network. In addition to IM, these popups work for social networks and email, so you can catch that message as it hits your inbox. Very cool. However, sometimes they can be annoying. When you have all the networks, email monitoring, and Facebook, the popups can be constant and fill your screen with updates. This can easily be changed though.

Many people have Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc accounts. Updating these can be a chore, usually involving cellphones or browsers. Digsby integrates with many of these, allowing you to update your status, see your friends’ status, and much more. This is one of the nicer features, and allows for quick status updates, so you can let your friends know exactly what you are doing. Something I really enjoy about Digsby is its email integration. AIM, Google Talk, and Yahoo Im offer alerts for when you get new emails, but unless you see the alert when you get it, you miss information about it. Digsby shows similar alerts with its popup, but also allows you to view the summaries of your unread messages, and perform various quick actions on them.

Digsby is also nice enough to include widgets, so if you have a website of Facbook account, you can install that widget to your pages, and people can come and chat with you, without having to use Digsby. The chat client is flash based, so it is speedy and easy to embed, as well as offering several color choices and customization options. If someone you do not wish to talk to starts annoying you, you can block their IP address. Simple as that!

Digsby is currently in open beta, and they are doing a phenomenal job. They are constantly pushing updates to make Digsby even more compelling. The latest update includes Facebook Chat and other fixes. Overall, Digsby is great, and some of the other multi-network messengers should take note. Trillian Astra has been in private beta for years and I am begging to think it will never be released, but when it does, Digsby may have something to fight for, but until then, look no further than Digsby.

Claiming to be the largest online people search with more than 200 million people profiles from across the Web, including social networks and other online communities, I thought I would test out their claim. Needless to say, they scored high on the test.

Like I sometimes do on Google, I started simple, and I searched my name. The page was instantly filled with pictures of myself, and other various web pages, blogs, and social networks I have been in or wrote for. I searched my boss, I searched my friends, and I searched my neighbors. Trying to see whom it would not find…It found everyone. You would be thunderstruck at the people you will find. Those that I thought had nothing to do with the internet were on there.

Wink.com searches the public profiles on MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn, Live Spaces, and other sources. They are adding more and more networks all the time and are developing new technology to find even more people in a variety of cool ways. Wink People Search lets you find people by name, location, school, work, and interest anywhere on the web.

If you ask me, I find it kind of creepy. Of course I realized, being an active internet user, I will have things littered all over the internet about me, but it just makes me feel strange to think that companies out there specialize in bringing people altogether in services like this one, and PeopleFinder, and the others that are out there. I digress.

If you want, you can ask to be found:

“You can also use Wink to enable you to be found on the Wink search engine and other traditional search engines. By creating a profile on Wink, you can manage your web presence. Wink allows you to claim and add various places where you are online, and provides you an interface to manage all of them in one place. This gives you the power to determine what people know about you and where you are on the web.”

So there you have it folks – Wink.com, the largest online people search that is improving constantly. I must say, it has taken a bit of time out of my day doing all the searches. Not only is it fun searching for people you know, but it is helpful and free.

In today’s society, there are many problems throughout the world that each of us are moved and impacted by. Whether or not we choose to take action upon these problems is our own choice. If you want to make a small difference in this world, then there may be a site for you. Change.org is a Web site that hopes to facilitate the means in which passionate people gather to make a difference on any given issue. Change.org allows people to submit their ideas on what needs to be changed in the world and the site connects them with nonprofit organizations that are built upon making that exact change. People are able to submit their thoughts to groups of people who may be able to make it happen. So far, the site is very popular with tons of users (and an even greater quantity of ideas for change.) What I find interesting is that organizations can build a group of supporters to help carry an entire campaign. They call it “viral fundraising.” It is the simple concept of increasing the magnitude of success that you can receive from your own peers. Organizations post how much they have raised through the site which is interesting to see as well.

The other side to change.org is the political section, where politicians and campaigners use the site to build trust and gain support of voters who can put them in office. Candidate pages are full of information, photos, helpful videos, supporter bios and endorsements. If you’re not sure where candidates agree with you on important issues,
take the presidential matchmaker quiz. Whether you are an advocate for a well-known nonprofit or simply have a small town cause that needs help, it’s worth checking out change.org It is free to be a member and donating is 100% voluntary.

Byteswap is a free service (a virtual file cabinet as they call it) that allows you to upload and store files, contacts, Web links, photos, recipes – you name it! All uploaded items are nicely organized in folders. You can use the pre-named folders or you can rename them. You can also add information about the uploaded files, enabling you to know exactly why something is saved. You don’t get a true feel for Byteswap until you sign up. Their homepage and information links are a bit dense and it doesn’t look like much. However, once you sign up, it takes you to your personal dashboard which is customizable and has a lot more options.

Byteswap currently offers a Firefox toolbar that allows you to add links or pictures to your library from the Web. In addition to Firefox, an IE toolbar is in the works. This makes it a lot easier while surfing the Web to quickly save something that you consider a file-worthy item.

You can also make money with Byteswap by putting together a specific type of information that interests a group of people. When individuals view your content, they will see Adsense ads that are related to your content. If they click on the ad, then you get paid. If you are familiar with Adsense, you should know that you need quite a few clicks to make money.

When hovering over an item you’ve saved, a smooth screen shows a preview of the item. I think this is a useful aspect of the site.

You can make your content private or public. If your items are published publicly, then you can share them with friends and other Byteswap users. Byteswap also provides groups to join that serve to share content among users will similar interests. Byteswap is a good option for those of us who like to save lots of pictures and documents on our computers. This is a free way to backup some items in case a virus brings your computer down. Try it out at www.byteswap.com.

I covered google docs in this post, since then I have been keeping an eye out for another application that has as much to offer someone wishing to bring more of their work online. The good news is that I think I found one, the bad news, with so much of my stuff invested into google docs I am not sure that Zoho provides enough reason for me to switch. However for those of you who are about to make the jump from desktop applications to online document use, Zoho may be your answer.

While both google and Zoho offer very similar services there are some that only Zoho offers and others that only google offers. Both offer the following: Word Processor, spreadsheet, slideshow, web clippings, email, chat, wiki (google uses Jot), and web conferencing. What only google has: Web site hosting and feed reader. What only Zoho has: Database application, Online database, project management and customer relationship manger. I think the main difference between the two is that Zoho appears to be more business oriented while google remains strongly consumer driven.

While time will only tell if Zoho will be competitive against the juggernaut that is google, however if you are someone looking for a new place to store your work online, Zoho is worth the time it takes to explore it a little. I like Zoho a lot and if in the future I find that google does not meet all my needs I will definantly give them a shot. You can check out Zoho here, registration and use is free unless you opt for their Zoho business which runs $40 per user per year.