Feedable is an RSS reader which uses a lot of AJAX yet remains simple to use.

They mix the simplicity of Bloglines’ sidebar-based approach with Ajax to great success. Bloglines has long been criticised for its use of frames which compared to Ajax is a neolithic technology. Still, I like this approach over that of many feed readers as it is simple and it also means quicker loading times. I like how you choose the feed you wish to read on Feedable on the left side of the screen much as you do in Bloglines. This makes the transition between Bloglines and Feedable slightly easier.

Feedable allows the user to import OPML files; OPML is a XML-based format for files containing information about feeds such as their URL. This is useful as Bloglines allows users to export their feeds as an OPML file, which allows them to easily migrate to another RSS reader like Feedable. This meant all I needed to do to transfer all my feeds to Feedable was to click a few buttons!

When you’re into Feedable, you choose the feed you wish to read through the left. What I dislike is that it fails to tell you how many new posts have been made like Bloglines does. I don’t expect this would take much work and would be a great addition to the service. Another thing the site seems to lack is a read all feature like Bloglines has when you whack x feeds (x being the amount of feeds you are subscribed to).

Feedable also seems to focus too much on eye candy. As an example, allowing you to add a background is in my opinion a bad idea as it reduces load times and you may not choose any picture you wish but instead must choose from a small selection. Also, for some reason, the default background reminds me of Vista.

A feature I do like is that you can save an article! This is great if there’s one post you’re half way through or need to refer to again. Another interesting feature is Hot Right Now which displays the newest items from the most popular sources.

Overall, Feedable is a simple RSS reader which is fit for purpose but could do with a few minor changes. I don’t think I’d be ready to switch unless the ones I’ve suggested in this article were implemented.

Tags: feedable, rss, feeds, feed reader, rss reader, aggregator, rss aggregator, web2.0, web2, web 2.0, web 2, ajax, bloglines

Project Grow is an interesting project hosted by Teddy Hwang. Basically, he’s got a project with three phases. Phase I is where he offers free web designs to a small number of bloggers, such as myself, in order to build awareness of his project. In phase II, he’ll offer hosting with a web design at $10 a month for small businesses and phase III will be similar to phase I.

We were lucky to be chosen for the first phase of this project and from the Photoshop mock-ups Teddy has sent me I can see we’ll soon have an impressive design.

So what does Teddy get from all of this? Well he gets an increased online presence, some designs to add to his portfolio and some more experience. It’s possible sites in the third phase will indeed get better design than ones in the first phase such as this one.

Teddy also is having a project called Project Widget where he’ll make Dashboard widgets for anyone free of charge.

Tags: web design, webdesign

Disclosure: Webby’s World is getting paid to write this review. We will try not to let this alter our opinion

iBegin Source is a site which provides access to databases of information regarding businesses in the United States. They offer this service free-of-charge for non-commercial use and for commercial use they charge between $1,000 and $40,000, depending on how many states you want data on.

Whilst this may sound hefty, all businesses are geocoded (in KML) and would therefore be useful for a company like Google to include on their maps service. All of iBegin supports popular standards such as the hcard microformat as well as valid XHTML and CSS.

iBegin Source also takes a wiki approach; this is good as it allows it to be easily and quickly updated and maintained. Of course, it also makes it prone to abuse. But that is the risk of any wiki system; iBegin would not be able to provide their prices if it was a conventional Yellow Pages service.

Currently, iBegin Source lists 10,820,497 businesses. I think this is a fairly realistic estimate for the total amount of businesses in the United States as the population of that grand nation is 300,000,000 . It’s a shame that at the moment only United States businesses are listed because sites such as Google (or GPS software like TomTom) don’t have good listings for the UK and a service like this would be useful for them.

The site also has a nice, light design which is hard to find in today’s B2B websites. It has a lot of whitespace therefore it doesn’t strain your eyes.

iBegin Source is an interesting service. Whilst it might be a bit out of my price range, it would be useful for businesses who had a need for such services.

Tags: b2b, ibegin, ibegin source, web2.0, web2, web 2, web 2.0

heardontv.com lists which songs were played on television and in which episodes. The idea is simple: if you listen to a song on TV and you like it, you can easily buy/download it. The site entirely relies on users contributing the names of tracks, so therefore it is far from complete at any point.

The site only seems to list new shows. For example, Friends isn’t listed but My Name is Earl is. I’d love to see ’90s and ’80s shows listed, but unfortunately they are not. Currently, there are about 25 shows on the site but I guess that is understandable as its userbase would be unlikely to have the capability to support any more.

The site also is interesting as it allows you to log-in through your Yahoo! log-in, however, I think it’d be better if it employed a better SSO (single sign-on) such as OpenID or sxip.

The design of heardontv as it is extremely light and its use of yellow is tasteful but more unusual than the likes of blue. I also think its integration with other sites is good, especially with radioblogclub but also with Amazon, iTunes and Real.

Overall, this site is an interesting idea but it needs a larger userbase for it to become a good resource if increased in size and added more shows.

Tags: heardontv, music, tv, web2.0, web 2.0, web2, web 2

The sad fact is there’s too many Web 2.0 start-ups popping up daily to keep track of; I now don’t have the time to go through each one I find on my feedreader. When I bother to open one of these web 2.0 services, I’m often disappointed to find various things which annoy me. I’ve decided to list them below for the advantage of all you budding web developers!

1. Auto-starting media: you might think it’s great for a tutorial or video explaining what your service does starting when the user opens your site. The user is more likely to be annoyed for your voiceover spoling their TV show or music! If you have the urge to include a tutorial, be sure not to make it play unless the user clicks play! Example Taskee
2. Stupidly complex login forms: do you really need to know what my favourite colour is when I’m signing up to a wiki? Nope. Make log-in forms relevant to your service and only make fields which you really need to know. Make fields like location optional; respect your users’ privacy. Example Reverbnation
3. Service launching soon: these types of things are what make hype in web 2.0 . It is really annoying though when you don’t actually explain to the users what the service does. Example involver
4. Making your users feel cheap: Netscape bribed Digg’s top users to contribute. But what about lower users? An extreme example is Profigg, a blatant Digg clone, which rewards their top user with a rubbish book.
5. Clone another service: the vast majority of services I’ve listed above are clones. I hate clones. They lack originality and don’t have any wide appeal.

Tags: web2.0, web 2.0, web2, web 2