Rev2.org

Although most Web browsers can return general IP information to the server so that site owners can target ads, products, etc. towards visitors, these are usually relatively general and non-specific.  Melissa Data, based in California, hopes to fix that with their IP Locator Object.

Available as an API or Web service, the tool identifies user’s geographic location down to country, region, city, latitude and longitude, and even ZIP code.  It does this without invading privacy, as all of this information is public when parsed.

Several uses for an object like this are possible.  From simply pre-populating form data or automatically choosing languages to reducing credit card fraud or filtering hackers and spammers.  All are possible using the tool.

Using the test tool on Melissa Data’s website (http://www.MelissaData.com/findIP ), however, raises questions.  Namely: how is this better than what browsers can already do?

I live in Boca Raton, Florida, but my ISP is actually based in Miami.  Melissa Data’s web-based tool pinpointed me as being in Miami rather than Boca Raton.  I asked a friend to try it where he lives and he was mis-placed from Wyoming to Colorado.

So far, this tool is 0/2.

Most good shopping cart systems now can already do this and there are free scripts for targeting page delivery to geographic IP.  Tools like ActiveTarget, IP2Location, and others have been doing this since 2007.

As an addition to the Melissa Data suite of solutions, however, it is a long-overdue app that has a good place in their lineup.

Melissa Data is a data quality solutions provider headquartered in California.  They have been around since 1985, specializing in bulk mail, customer contact, and postal automation services through both stand-alone and Web-based apps.  Earlier this year, Melissa Data services acquired M1 Data and Analytics, a telco data “411” service.

Startup StuffBuff.com premiered at TechCrunch50 2009 as another eBay alternative, but with a twist.  Unlike other online auction sites, StuffBuff is a spoke on your social hub, allowing for viral networking or, as they put it, Viral eCommerce.

That explanation sounds nice, but doesn’t really convey much.  It’s hard to explain StuffBuff in a short sentence without sounding too Web 2.0 propagandist.  You have to experience it.  Lucky for us, StuffBuff just went into private beta on November 11, and we got in to try it.

One the one hand, StuffBuff is an auction and eCommerce site like eBay or any other.  At that level, it’s very much the same as they are.  Where the innovation comes in is with how StuffBuff alters the auction process and creates interactive and (dare I say) entertaining buying and selling process.

Instead of waiting a week to see if you’ve won, only to find out that you were sniped at the last minute by somebody using one of those services, you can find, bid, haggle, and win your item in real time.

Through a system called LiveHaggle, users can basically enter a chat room dedicated to a seller’s item and start bidding.  Bidders can compete or even collaborate while the seller answers questions, encourages bids, and so forth.  During the conversation, bids are recorded (they are commitments to buy, just as on eBay or a regular live auction) and can be paid through a semi-automated PayPal API (Adaptive Payments™).

Products can be delivered through the mail, in person, or in real-time for digital products.

Of course, being in private beta, there isn’t a lot to choose from yet, but should this site catch on (which I think it will), this will change.  Using StuffBuff is intuitively easy, can be very fun, and so far as I could see it worked flawlessly.

The fees are straight up front and aren’t couched in pages of legal jargon like on some other auction sites.  You pay twenty-five cents (25¢) to set up an auction and 5% of the final sale price of your item.  An additional $1.50 is charged if you have a reserve price on your item.

The addition of cloud-based cataloging and integration with popular social media makes the whole thing very real-time.  Their cool search tool can stay active and immediately tell you when someone lists something that matches your criteria.

StuffBuff is based in New York City and is the first application to be built on the French AJAX Push Engine (APE), which claims to be ten times faster than Twitter.

There are a lot of non-profits out there and most of them are struggling for economic survival.  For those of us who donate to charity, it’s sometimes hard to figure out the best way to do so.  Our own finances may not be in a position where a regular monthly donation of a fixed amount (the most common choice) is possible and after a couple of months of one-time giving, we may forget.

Givv.org was started by supporters of Texas Republican Ron Paul as a website to gather donations for his 2008 campaign.  Seeing the potential and the need, the Austin, Texas-based entrepreneurs re-designed Givv.org, changed its focus, and launched it as a donation-gathering site for all charities.

Today, Givv.org boasts charity membership from social, political, animal rights, environmental, and almost any other you can name.  Best of all, though, is its focus on the charitable contributor rather than the charity itself.

The idea is pretty simple, once you see it, and makes a lot of sense.

Logging into the site (registration is free), the givver makes a list of charities he or she would like to donate to on a monthly basis.  Then a contribution is made, through Givv.org, and distributed amongst the givver’s list.  Each charity can be “ranked” to get a higher or lower percentage of the donation total and charities can be added or removed at any time before the monthly cut-off, when Givv.org disburses the funds.

For the givver, this makes for an easy, one-off transaction (rather than several, one to each charity) and also gives them a central location for their giving.  Givvrs can set up a monthly, fixed donation (which can be changed at any time).

This keeps monthly budgets in check, gives charities a single one-time check to track instead of several smaller ones, and allows for privacy for the givver.  For some, that last part is important.  Donating to a charity requires you register a lot of information with them in order to get the tax write-off.  The problem is, they usually use that information to send you a lot of stuff asking for more money.  Through Givv.org, you still get the write-off, but the charities aren’t told who you are unless you allow them to see the information.

In the end, Givv.org is a win-win for everyone involved.  As a bonus, a higher percentage of the donation goes to the individual charities, since the credit card or e-check processing fees are only collected once (when you use Givv.org) versus several times (once for each charity).  Givv.org is, itself, a non-profit, takes no fees from the transaction outside of their own credit card/e-check processing costs.

Definitely a great site worth supporting.

Look ma!  A Twitter tool that actually does something useful!  I can hear the chorus and relieved sighs as I type this.  Like me, I suspect most of you are tired of seeing the waves of useless Twitter and iPhone apps that keep flooding the Web hoping to glob onto the social buzz wagons.

LocaFollow.com is a Twitter search tool that searches profiles to find people by location or interests.  You can also search names and tweets for things as well, but the tool is most useful for finding people by location.  You can also bulk follow, tweet the results, or create lists that you can reference later to go through to find new friends.

Jumping right into the tool, I searched “Boca Raton” as a location in LocalFollow and it immediately came up with a list based on that.  The users are ranked randomly, apparently, as I could find no rhyme to the order they appear in.  First on the list is Chief Dan Alexander (@bocachief).  Each result is in a blurb that includes their profile photo, number of followers/following/tweets, biography, etc.  Their latest tweet is shown as a speech bubble next to their pic.

The LocalFollow app is very slick, loads and searches quickly, and is definitely something to be included on your list of tools for Twitter.  You can use the site without logging in, but in order to save, follow, or bulk follow others, you’ll need to sign in.  You can do that with your Twitter account.

The random featured users that pop up are interesting.  Google coders, semi-famous people, and randomly interesting (and active) Twitter users are featured at the top of each search, separate from results.  Other nice touches include the large layout and easy navigation.  Definitely a great site.

So President Obama has a Twitter account (@barackobama) that is rivaled in popularity only by Oprah Winfrey’s (@oprah).  The breaking story yesterday on TechCrunch and this morning in the Wall Street Journal, however, is that all of those followers on Obama’s Twitter account are being fooled.  He’s never used Twitter.

It’s not a conspiracy, folks.  He admitted it himself, publicly, and on the record.  Instead, the tweets on @barackobama are coming from his Twitter Czar, an unnamed White House press agent.  The worst part is that he didn’t admit all of this in front of the American people, but instead did so in front of a group of Chinese students in Shanghai.

I don’t know about you, but I think we Americans have been Shanghai’d.

I mean, what a gyp!  We’re being taken for patsies!  First, the Obama’s blatantly clone my dog to put in the White House and now this?  Come on, Mr. President!  Come clean!

Alright, in all seriousness, the real story here is Chinese censorship.  This is one of the major purposes of the president’s visit to Asia, with his first stop being China.  Much of the Internet is inaccessible in China because of government filters.

The WSJ article makes some good points.  The president’s speech, for instance, was not broadcast on the government-run network Xinhua nationally and those Chinese who were able to see Obama’s speech were either live in the auditorium or were there locally for the town’s television station broadcast.

The President emphasized U.S.-Chinese cooperation and political and economic relations, of course, but was continually back on the subject of censorship.  But I agree with Obama when he said “there are certain fundamental principles that are common to all people, regardless of culture.”

Freedom of information is the Internet’s ultimate part and parcel.  All people should be free to access information to make their own decisions, facilitate their own learning, and be empowered by it all.  I don’t think anyone can easily argue with that.

So you’ve made the commitment and now the preparations for your big day are beginning.  The Web is all about finding a niche and excelling in it.  Weddings are no exception.  Your preparations for your wedding and the Web can work hand-in-hand.  More and more couples are going online to set up gift registries, book venues, hire planners, and more.

WeddingJoJo.com caters to those couples who want to build an entire website dedicated to their big event.  Why not, right?  It’s the 21st century.  It’s also convenient, as it gives you a centralized location to put your gift lists, RSVPs for the big day and the reception, and give details and schmooz about your plans.

There are three basic uses for this site, as I see them (being married and a guy, I have perspective here):

1. As a place to show off your love and get people to send presents.
2. As a place to build a full billing of events for the wedding day so everyone knows what’s happening.
3. As a way to show your involvement in the wedding plans without actually getting involved.

The first two are important, but for many guys, the last one is paramount.  After all, weddings are all about the bride, the groom is just a black-and-white tux accessory who can say “I do.”  If guys were in charge of weddings, there would be cake, beer, bratwurst or BBQ, and everyone would show up in t-shirts and jeans.  There might be mud wrestling or a heavy metal band for entertainment.

That is why girls are in charge of weddings.

Now, if you want to appear to have spent hours working on the wedding to help your wife-to-be get the plans for the Big Day finished, but you don’t actually want to go shopping for napkins or centerpieces, then this WeddingJoJo may be your ticket out.

You can quickly build a wedding website that’s all about your nuptials and that’s personalized towards you and your bride.  You can do it in minutes.  When you’re done, it will look like you did it in hours.  That’s the beauty.

If this isn’t clicking for you, you are the bride and are probably getting disgusted.  Hey, welcome to the mind of man.  You’re about to enter into a full time commitment to one.