One of the most valuable and pervasive user-generated features of Twitter has been the evolution of hashtags. Whether used to signal discussion of a specific topic, or to participate in a shared event, searching for mentions of popular hashtags has become a frequent occurrence, aimed to capture the pulse of the world in real time. But, like most good things, they too can be used for ill will, as spammers and other jokers latch on to popular events and topics to push their nefarious agenda. Also, search results from Twitter, especially as the service grows in popularity, are not categorized or grouped. Tweetbeat, the latest introduction from search company Kosmix, delivered a solution last week that brings the world's events to the fore, with Twitter as the filter, spam free.

Just like the company's previous (and ongoing) efforts with the Tweetbeat Firsthand extension, which surfaces relevant Twitter accounts through the entire Web, Kosmix is again trying to make the pervasive noise from Twitter useful, bringing the best of the service forward, and pushing the dreck to the back.


Tweetbeat, launched last week at the TechCrunch Disrupt event, features what the company calls LiveFollow event streams to see real-time reactions from experts and others, Replay functionality to show tweets that took place during past events, and recommendations to find people who are engaging in events of shared interest.

The Disrupt event was not only a good launch conference for the product, but also a good test case, as Tweetbeat chronicled people's reactions to startup introductions, panels and yes, the AOL/TechCrunch news. Companies and people mentioned in the event were featured in a leaderboard, showing who was getting the most digital ink.


But Tweetbeat is more than just tech conferences. Tweetbeat fires up for weather hotspots, movie releases, and all manner of sporting events. (See: http://tweetbeat.com/events. For me, one of the most compelling and fun uses of Tweetbeat is the service's dedicated NFL section, which shows real-time reactions to games across the league, with breakdowns by contest. You can even play back each game to ride fans' highs and lows. Even the baseball pennant race got a look in (See: Giants vs. Padres - Game 162 on Tweetbeat).


Kosmix was among the earliest partners to have access to Twitter's full firehose feed, and they are leveraging that access to its fullest with Tweetbeat, pulling in about 3,000 tweets per second, filtering them for relevance and hiding those with low influence - a rank they have developed for every single active Twitter user, utilizing multiple factors, such as retweets and the influence level of those who have retweeted them. The result? An incredibly fast, no nonsense view of the world's reactions to real-time events.

Twitter's trending topics are well known to often be led by frivolous or off-color hastags, and you won't find that on Tweetbeat. While Twitter search may be a quick click away within the service to see what people are saying that very second, Tweetbeat is capturing it all and ranking it for usefulness. You just might find the event you are searching for is not just on Tweetbeat, but organized with style. So check it out at http://www.tweetbeat.com. With the NFL season under way, and fall TV shows hitting the air, you know I'll be sneaking over to see what the world is saying.

Disclosure: Kosmix, the parent company of Tweetbeat, is a client of Paladin Advisors Group.

As Twitter usage has essentially become pervasive, from the digerati to celebrities and politicians, the site has moved to bring Twitter content and functionality downstream, bringing the world of @replies and 140 characters to new Web sites and clients. One of the major introductions from the company was a tool called @Anywhere, which when used, lets you follow people from third party sites, all with a few lines of JavaScript code. Now, Kosmix, the lesser-known, but innovative, Mountain View search company, has taken this functionality a step further by automatically detecting names and IDs of Twitter users around the Web, and displaying their recent updates from Twitter, with no work needed on behalf of the Web site owner.

The way Kosmix makes this happen is through a lightweight Web browser plugin called Tweetbeat Firsthand, available for both Mozilla FireFox and Google's Chrome browser. Upon installation, you will start to see small blue Twitter icons next to names as you surf the Web. Hovering over the blue icons shows their Tweet stream, and encourages you to learn more about the person from Kosmix's rich topic summaries.


For example, a standard Yahoo! Sports article on Lance Armstrong's Tour de France effort also contains an update from actor Ben Stiller. The blue Twitter icon next to Stiller gives his real-time updates on the Tour, and links out to his Kosmix page, here: http://www.kosmix.com/topic/Ben%20Stiller.

Surfing the Web with the "Tweetbeat Firsthand" extension adds a new layer of real-time to all pages. If you install the plugin and visit my blog, for instance, you can see names like Paul Buchheit and Jason Shellen sporting the blue T's, while brands similarly are highlighted, including Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook.

The Tweetbeat Firsthand extension follows on to Kosmix's highly visible World Cup efforts during the last month, which also carries the Tweetbeat name. You can grab the extension here: http://www.kosmix.com/labs/firsthand/.

Disclosure: Kosmix.com has previously done business as a client of Paladin Advisors Group.

As Twitter promised back in December at LeWeb, the company has now extended access to the firehose, the full feed of public tweets, to a full array of partners - going beyond the initial deals with search leaders Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft. The partners announced today include personal favorites Twazzup, Collecta and Kosmix, taking Twitter more into the realm of platform rather than destination.

Twitter, through its continued rise in traffic, use and the public consciousness, has seen the data flowing through its system grow increasingly valuable, as the company aims to live up to its lofty goal as the pulse of the planet. This rich data set, now open for partners to tap into, can potentially rival traditional search engines in terms of value, especially where real-time reaction and sentiment analysis comes into play.

Kosmix, behind the personalized newspaper service, Meehive, and extended topic pages on its own search tool, wrote to say, "Having full access to the entire tweet streams will give us the chance to surface all relevant and interesting information on what is buzzing on the Web for any given topic."

Financial deals were not disclosed by Twitter, or by its partners, but the company looks to have found a way to recognize revenue and gain income off of the public stream. In this age of real-time data, the faster and more relevant, the better. That Twitter is letting more of its secret sauce spread across the Web will make it harder for other sites, namely Facebook, to look as nimble.

Disclosure: Kosmix has previously done business with Paladin Advisors Group, where I am managing director of new media.

In the world of custom news applications that look to provide you personalized content, there are a growing number of contenders using different methods to filter the "best" from the "rest". Some, like Techmeme, utilize editorial directive in picking the top stories to present. Others, such as Tweetmeme and Digg, use popularity as that method. my6sense watches your own activity and customizes it for you. Meehive, Regator and others show content based on topics you have selected. Cascaad, a new entrant, takes a different approach, leveraging your personal social graph, suggesting to you the stories your friends have found valuable. It also shows you news by category, both on your iPhone and on their Web site.

Like many other social applications, Cascaad asks you to connect using Twitter OAuth or Facebook Connect. Cascaad then pulls in recent links shared by friends, and aims to find popular items that are gaining conversation (tracked by Twitter replies, for instance), or groups them by keyword.


One Popular Cascaad Item and Related Conversation

Items flow in from the top, like a cascading waterfall, similar to Lazyfeed's new approach, and leading to Cascaad's name. You can click any item and make a response, or "like" the item with a simple thumbs up. You can also share the messages by e-mail or on Twitter and Facebook.


Cascaad Channels and News In Focus

Cascaad's power, aside from bringing shared links from friends, is in the channels section, coming preinstalled with a number of topical channels, while also letting you create your own. Cascaad bundles channels from top topics like News, Business, Tech, Sports and Entertainment. With the addition of a few keywords, such as "Apple iPad" or "Super Bowl", you can make your own personalized channel that taps your social streams to show you related links, and who originated those links. You can also search the real time stream and show shared links on Cascaad.


Cascaad Custom Channels and Search

Cascaad says you can train the application to improve filters, based on those items you like, much as my6sense's digital intuition creates a tailored stream. Thus far, I haven't seen a dramatic personalization from the product, as I did with my6sense, but it may come with more use. Cascaad's benefits largely lie in the ability to see conversations from Twitter, connecting initial links with nested replies, and in being able to filter the real-time conversations by topic.

You can try Cascaad on the Web at http://cascaad.com/, or on the iPhone by downloading free from the iTunes store. I have also embedded a video from Robert Scoble interviewing Cascaad founder Erik Lumer below:


Disclosures: my6sense is a client of Paladin Advisors Group, where I am Managing Editor of New Media. In addition, I have previously done work for Kosmix.com, creator of MeeHive. My comments on the companies' products are always independent, and do not pass their way in advance.

For as much content as I might be creating, with new blog posts, and social media updates scattered across a myriad of networks, I am still far from satiated when it comes to data flowing the other way. My days are spent embedded in Google Reader and FriendFeed, with TweetBeep, LazyFeed and BackType filling in the gaps I may miss. But when away from the laptop, it's my iPhone that keeps me connected to the world wide publishing machine. With the introduction of a new application from Regator (www.regator.com), I now have three solid options for finding relevant data when I am praying to the duopoly of Apple and AT&T. Added on to MeeHive (review) and My6Sense (review), I am getting dangerously close to knowing I won't miss anything, even when I clip my laptop leash.

The three applications (My6Sense, MeeHive and Regator) have slightly different goals. My6Sense looks at data you have imported and tries to learn from your behavior what is most relevant to you as an individual. MeeHive not only offers general news, but also, personalized data based on its knowing what I like, thanks to my answering a series of survey questions. Regator plays more of an editorial role, having hand-selected the best of the blogosphere (in their mind) and offering it to you in easy to navigate sections.


The Main Regator iPhone Page (and Technology Trends)
Upon opening Regator, you get a popular news overview from the Web, which, depending when you look, could offer you a mix of technology, celebrity news, politics, healthcare or sports. To find the newest updates, click the New button at the bottom, or, more interestingly, you can click Trends to find what topics are gaining momentum in the blogosphere. (For example, top trends today include Robert Novak, Brett Favre, and the iPhone)


Regator's Technology Section and My Blog Archive
But more specialization takes place when you look at the bar below "All Topics" at the top of the Regator app. You can find subsections from Poltiics, Religion, Sports, Local Interest and others. Of course, being a techno-focused media consumer, that's where I expect to spend the most time. Regator lets you "swipe" through the lists left to right and right to left to drill down on your topic, and you might be surprised as to how deep their data goes. If you click too many times in the wrong place, you just might find yourself in Architecture under Construction under Occupations, for example. Regator has all the data, and is just waiting for you to find it. And yes, should you get lost, just click home to go back.

Of the three applications, Regator has the smoothest, most colorful, interface. It has its smiling gator atop each page, features thumbnail graphics and large colorful buttons. Just about the only thing it doesn't do which I wish it did is clearly offer full-text of the stories (now, you have to click a second time following the excerpt). On My6Sense, I can read a full story and go back to my list, as it pulls from the full RSS feed. On Regator, I initially only see the headline, a thumbnail and an excerpt. Meanwhile, Meehive just clicks through to the original story as if I had opened a new browser window.


Regator: Searching for iPhone and Vanity Search Results
Regator also offers the option to search by keyword, or to browse the product's very-deep directories. Should you find an individual blog that you like, you can choose it, and scroll down to see more entries, going back for several months at least. It aims to offer what it calls the Web's Best Blogs, and it does a great job finding high-quality content from a wide variety of sources. The new app is available for free on the iTunes store. Don't be thrown by its 17+ rating. That's just Apple being confused.

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Disclosure: Kosmix.com, author of MeeHive, is a client of Paladin Advisors Group, where I am General Manager of New Media. I have no relationships with other companies or services mentioned in this article.

Lunch 2.0 with Kosmix, Mozilla and FriendFeed

As mentioned yesterday, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel featuring representatives from three forward-looking Web companies looking to push change and compete with established market leaders. You can watch the full hour-plus long video recording on UStream, or catch five minutes of highlights above. It was a pleasure to participate, as it was my first time moderating, and I hope I get the chance to do so again. Thanks to the 200 plus people who attended, the panelists, and for Kosmix, putting it together.

Around 12:30 p.m. this afternoon, I will be sitting down with Anand Rajaraman, Co-Founder of Kosmix, Bret Taylor, Co-Founder of Friendfeed and Chris Beard, Mozilla's Chief Innovation Officer to talk about how these three small companies are driving change online. If you can't be one of the more than 150 expected to attend in person today, I hope you will get a chance to follow along on the live Ustream coverage.

To join us, start here around noon: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lunch-2-0-with-kosmix-mozilla-and-friendfeed

More information on the panel was included in my post: Join Mozilla, FriendFeed and Kosmix for Lunch 2.0 on August 6th

Disclosure: Kosmix.com is a client of Paladin Advisors Group, where I am General Manager of New Media.

On Thursday, August 6th, from 12:00PM - 2:00PM, I have the opportunity to sit down with Anand Rajaraman, Co-Founder of Kosmix, Bret Taylor, Co-Founder of Friendfeed and Chris Beard, Mozilla's Chief Innovation Officer, for a lunchtime panel on how these three innovative companies are working to drive change online.

The panel discussion, titled "Postcards From the Edge: Shaking Up Markets, Mindsets and Media", will be held at 444 Castro Street, Suite 109 in Mountain View, and you can RSVP to get one of 150 registrations on Upcoming.org.

Disclosure: Kosmix.com is a client of Paladin Advisors Group.

With printed newspapers going the way of the dodo, Web services have long battled to find a replacement for the ink-stained papers of yesteryear, hoping to leverage the rapidity of the Web with personalized customization. In the 90s, many search engines turned into Web portals, hoping to find readers' eyeballs would be "sticky" and spend lots of time on their site. In this decade, the move has been more to RSS-powered solutions, like Google News, or trusting the aggregation of behavior, either from friends or the Web at large - in social sites like Digg or FriendFeed. And for me, I've never quite found the right solution.

I tend to turn toward the firehose of Google Reader, FriendFeed and Twitter to get the immediate news, but struggle at finding one single destination to browse all the top news, based on topics I've entered. Meehive, a new offering from Kosmix.com, has taken strides in this direction with a product they call Meehive, which you can find at www.meehive.com.


My Personalized MeeHive Daily Hive
Meehive is nothing if not diligent in trying to make you the perfect news site. Upon registration, users are walked through a series of preference pages, where you can choose, based on the topic at hand, from Business and Finance items, to Sports, to Entertainment, and US & World, Lifestyle, and others. You can also add RSS feeds directly to the site, like you can with portals from My Yahoo!.

When you walk through these selections, you can choose from the pre-defined checkboxes Meehive offers, or you can add your own items. For example, in sports, I said I was most interested in Major League Baseball and NCAA Football, but more specifically, prefer news about the Oakland A's and Cal Bears. Similarly, I was able to, in the Business and Finance section, set up interests on Web sites like Twitter, Technorati, Google and Apple. This gave my Daily Hive a much more personalized feel than the standard CNN or Google News.


In addition to my preselected interests, Meehive incorporates trends from the world at large. It shows trending topics on Twitter, and stories in the news at large, so even if I haven't set up a topic for American Idol, which I promise never to do under penalty of death, I can click the "In the News" keyword "American Idol" and find all I want on Fox's insult to the American people.

And as you can expect, like practically every other social site out there, you can find friends on Meehive and get connected, to see their own interests. I can click through to a personalized page for Anthony Ha or Jason Kincaid, for example. In fact, in TechCrunch's article from this morning, you can see that Jason's screenshot includes my own activity in the top right, as we were connected. (My MeeHive is Here)

As much as you might think I'm overloaded with information from the Web, I'm not, honestly. I find that often my first tendency after reading through my Google Reader items is to want to go back to the site and start again, only to find them empty. It's possible, with MeeHive up and running, that when I've hit zero on Google Reader, and tapped out my FriendFeed and Twitter, I can have a destination to find out what the rest of the world is doing outside my little bubble.