Similar to how other micro blogging apps like Echofon and SimplyTweet function, Buzzie will send a user an alert whenever they receive a new comment or “buzz” (the latter which I do not recommend if one has over a hundred followers).

While this addition makes the app much more useful than the Google Buzz web app, Buzzie is still lacking in image support, a feature its rival Buzzr has (thanks in part to TwitPic).

Hopefully Buzzie continues to launch new features for this app, as it has the potential of helping bloggers on Google Buzz reach a different type of audience than other types of micro blogging platforms (like Twitter and Tumblr).

However, like its Friendfeed predecessor, Google Buzz is slowly becoming a hit amongst many in the tech blogosphere, and I’m beginning to see even art bloggers embrace Google Buzz (as they can easily display their albums to the delight of their fans).

For those of you who are more interested in using Google Buzz as a micro blogging service, here are 3 iPhone apps you may want to check out.

Buzzie

Launched with much fan fare throughout the blogosphere, Buzzie is thus far the most elegant Google Buzz app upon the app store, which basically allows you to post status updates, search for new friends and find nearby buzzers on a Google Map (note: be careful who you contact though!).

You can even download images that you see from within your buzz stream, although there is currently no way to upload any pictures to your stream from the app itself (note: this is unfortunately due to Google’s limitation of the API, which they are promising to resolve in the near future).

Buzzie is currently selling in the app store for about $2, although the price will go up once Buzzie 2.0 hits (which will hopefully have image and video support).

Buzzr

Created by I See U, Buzzr is at its very essence the mobile web app of Google Buzz with one extra feature: image uploading.

Buzzr gets around Google’s lack of “developer foresight” by utilizing Twitpic, a popular third party image service for Twitter.

Unfortunately there is no way they can associate your image with your Buzz account (so all images uploaded are public), although hopefully they will give users other image uploading options in the future (perhaps via Picasa or Flickr?) as Twitpic can be very slow sometimes (especially during lunch).

Buzzr is currently selling for about $1 in the app store (which is perfect for a blogger short on cash).

Ultimate Notifier

While technically a push notification app, Ultimate Notifier is one of the first push services that officially supports Google Buzz (which is helpful if you are gaining a following with the service).

Priced at around $2, Ultimate Notifier may help satisfy your buzzing urge, although if you have purchased another push notification service (like Boxcar) you can simply type in your buzz feed address in order to receive notifications.

Any others?

These are the only 2 Google Buzzing apps (3 if you include Ultimate Notifier) that survived Steve Jobs app approval process, although developers are busy creating more apps for the iPhone (and hopefully other smartphones as well).

Earlier today Mashable linked to a story upon GigaOM announcing that Twitter–a social network loved by numerous bloggers, is about to embrace tweet advertising.

(GigaOM) According to one source in the media industry, Twitter may launch its new advertising platform at the South by Southwest conference, which starts March 12. The social network is apparently working with several major partners for the launch, including “new and traditional media,” the source said.

Although I do recognize that Twitter can not keep providing a free service and keep the lights on indefinitely, there are probably many bloggers (like me) who have no desire to pollute our tweet streams with random ads sponsoring everything from socks to music.

In order to avoid the masses leaving Twitter for Facebook (or even Google Buzz), they may have to provide a premium option disabling ads altogether–a move which may not please users (especially those already short on cash due to the recession).

Twitter could make premium accounts inexpensive (say between $1-$3 per month) which would be a fair trade off for keeping our streams ad free.

However if they decide to charge more (say between $5-$10 per month) users may end up abandoning Twitter for Facebook, or demanding more features (i.e. verified accounts, higher API limits, etc.) from the popular startup.

While this author is not too pleased with the idea of ads inserted within streams, hopefully Twitter will provide an inexpensive way to opt out of ads as not everyone wants to put their entire life on Google and Facebook’s servers.

Fast forward towards today and one will discover Friendfeed to be mostly vacant save for the presence of super geeks (like Scoble).

For those of you who still refuse to forsake Twitter’s former rival, you may want to check out Freshfeed, an iPhone app created by Palaapp.com.

Priced at $2.99, Freshfeed allows users to not only post images into their Friendfeed stream, but also insert audio as well (and thus far seems to be the only app that does this).

While there are about a dozen Friendfeed apps available (many of them free), Freshfeed seems to be the only one that is still under active development.

Although Friendfeed’s ultimate fate is uncertain (as Facebook has yet to announce any plans to terminate the service), as long as the site remains alive, I’ll be Friendfeeding with Freshfeed–at least until someone comes out with something better. ;-)

Users have the option of turning on geotagging, enabling friends (and potential stalkers) to chart your daily route as you tweet across the map.

TweetDeck also now (finally) supports native retweets, joining Echofon, Tweetie and Twittelator in the quest to kill off the oft abused “RT copy & paste” function (although users can still opt to use it if they must).

Despite upgrading their iPhone app, TweetDeck still only supports one video carrier–12seconds–which is perhaps the only underwhelming feature of this app.

Video issues aside, TweetDeck is still one of my favorite Twitter apps as it balances elegance with power, making it a joy for newbie’s and guru’s alike.

Here is their press release, followed by my thoughts after giving it a brief test run (since my time was limited within the geek world today).

(Naan Studio Blog) You’ll find a dedicated list tab in Echofon 3 which allows for viewing, creating and editing your lists. You can also manage lists you follow, see what lists follow you. This is quite possibly the most complete lists implementation of any iPhone Twitter app.

Native retweets are now supported as well. Retweets are displayed in the familiar twitter.com style. You can still use the traditional retweet format, which allows comments along with the retweet. When viewing your profile, you can see retweets from those you follow, your tweets that have been retweeted and tweets you’ve retweeted.

Echofon’s embrace of the native retweet function was long over due, although they do give users the option of using the original RT feature (which I hate).

Echofon also embraces lists support as well, although unlike many (okay most) apps I’ve tried, your changes actually work. (note: other users are reporting crashes, but my experience is great thus far).

Last but not least I can finally edit my entire profile from within the app, and even change my profile picture (which I do frequently on Facebook).

While I could list other items that made me fall in love with app (Flickr support, smart push notifications, I did find a couple deal breakers that kept me from ditching Tweetie for this app.

Deal Breakers

To put it bluntly, Echofon STILL is lacking unlimited drafts. This is something even the dinkiest Twitter apps have, and it’s sad that this feature is still overlooked.

Echofon also needs to expand the number of options for video and photo uploading, as boasting only a couple (despite the fact it had Flickr) is underwhelming.

Conclusion: You can check out more of Echofon’s features over here, although in my honest opinion this is one of the few Twitter apps I had no regret paying for (in this case $5).

While I’ll continue to use Tweetie for now, I think I’ll keep Echofon as a backup (as Tweetie has been erroring out on me lately).

– Posted from my iPhone

Plurk has just issued their official response to Microsoft’s apology hinting that they are not ruling out the possibility of pressing legal charges against the Redmond software giant.

“We are currently looking at all possibilities on how to move forward in response to Microsoft’s recent apology statement. We are still thinking of pursuing the full extent of our legal options available due the seriousness of the situation.”

This whole debacle started a few days ago when Microsoft was accused of ripping-off Plurk’s design and code for use on their newly released microblogging service called MSN Juku. In response to the accusation, Microsoft quickly took the service down and followed it up with an apology acknowledging that the code was indeed copied from Plurk, not by them, but by an independent vendor that they hired to do the project.

Plurk, however, wants Microsoft not only to take responsibility but also be accountable with their actions as well.

This event wasn’t just a simple matter of merely lifting code; Due to the nature of the uniqueness of our product and user interface, it took a good amount of deliberate studying and digging through our code with the full intention of replicating our product user experience, functionality and end results. This product was later launched and heavily promoted by Microsoft with its big marketing budget.

Some people are saying that going against Microsoft in legal battle would only be a waste of time, especially because it wasn’t really Microsoft who did the copying but a third-party. Furthermore, Microsoft did immediately took down the service showing their strict observance on their policy regarding intellectual properties.

But then again, whatever course of action Plurk takes regarding this issue, they are sure to get huge amounts of exposure.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Join the discussion below!

Plurk, one of the biggest microblogging services in Asia, is accusing Microsoft China for ripping off not only their design but also their code with their beta release of MSN Juku, Microsoft China’s newly released microblogging service based on Windows Live Messenger launched last November 2009.

According to Plurk’s blog post,

“… we were absolutely shocked and outraged when we first saw with our own eyes the cosmetic similarities Microsoft’s new offering had with Plurk. From the filter tabs, emoticons, qualifier/verb placement, Karma scoring system, media support, new user walkthroughs to pretty much everything else that gives Plurk its trademark appeal, Microsoft China’s offering ripped off our service.”

To see for yourself, below is a screenshot of Microsoft Juku and Plurk:

If Microsoft wanted a horizontal style layout, they could’ve at least changed the design elements! I mean, c’mon!

More after the jump…

Sadly, Juku’s imitation doesn’t just end there. Apparently, aside from the design, they copied the code as well.

On closer inspection, we found that MUCH of the codebase and data structures that Microsoft’s MClub uses are identical snapshots of our code. Microsoft has taken Plurk’s custom developed libraries, css files and client code and just ported them directly over to their service without any attempt to even mask this!

Here are some screenshots taken by the Plurk team comparing the code of Plurk and Juku side by side:

Of course, the code are not exactly alike. However, it is easy to spot the similarities in both the structure, as well as with the variables and functions used. Plurk claims that 80% of the client and product codebase were copied from them.

Microsoft was quick to give out an official statement regarding the issue saying that,

“Microsoft takes intellectual property seriously, and we are currently investigating these allegations. It may take some time due to the time zone differences with Beijing.”

A few hours later, Juku’s service was suspended followed by an official press release on the Microsoft website which read:

On Monday, December 14, questions arose over a beta application called Juku developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN China joint venture. We immediately worked with our MSN China joint venture to investigate the situation.

The vendor has now acknowledged that a portion of the code they provided was indeed copied. This was in clear violation of the vendor’s contract with the MSN China joint venture, and equally inconsistent with Microsoft’s policies respecting intellectual property.

When we hire an outside company to do development work, our practice is to include strong language in our contract that clearly states the company must provide work that does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. We are a company that respects intellectual property and it was never our intent to have a site that was not respectful of the work that others in the industry have done.

We will be suspending access to the Juku beta indefinitely.

We are obviously very disappointed, but we assume responsibility for this situation. We apologize to Plurk and we will be reaching out to them directly to explain what happened and the steps we have taken to resolve the situation.

In the wake of this incident, Microsoft and our MSN China joint venture will be taking a look at our practices around applications code provided by third-party vendors.

It seems that all of this is the fault of the independent vendor that they hired who clearly lacks the creativity to come up with their own design and code. Unfortunately for Microsoft, this is not a valid excuse as they should have seen the similarities with their new product and Plurk, which is already quite well-established in Asia for them to not notice.

No news about Plurk’s response yet. Be sure to tune in here on BloggingPro for updates on this issue!

Plurk, one of the top micro-blogging services, has just opened up its API to developers!

Yep, you heard it right! Plurk’s official blog, Plurk Labs, announced the news today with much excitement.

As Plurk grows, the demand for different set of tools, applications or features to complement our product has also increased. While some of those requests are later added into our social platform, we fully aware it would be impossible for us to implement everything by ourselves. Our users love Plurk passionately and we love them back just as much. So if someone’s mom wants to read her Plurks from her kitchen microwave, she should be able to (provided someone else already wrote such application using our API).

For all those people scratching there heads on what API is, here’s a quick explanation: API means Application Programming Interface. By opening up Plurk’s API, developers can be able to make applications that can use Plurk’s features, data, etc.

Imagine what people could do with Plurk now its API is open. How about the ability to embed our plurk timelines on our blogs? That would be sweet!

Interested developers can head on over to http://plurk.com/API for the full documentation.

One of the impending casualties of the blogging space obsolescence is live blogging. Yeah, there was a time when people blogged real-time in their respective blogs and kept updating one single post in rapid succession to cover an event. A couple of years ago, as blogs were slowly gaining prominence, live blogging was the apex of covering an event live via blogging.

But due to the emergence of microblogging and platforms such as Twitter and Plurk, live blogging is on its way to extinction. Microblogging is fast and automatic, making the process of constantly updating a blog post cumbersome and clunky. Add to that the proliferation of third-party sites and apps that support micro-blogging, live blogging can be officially be considered a dying art.

But before we say “good riddance” to live blogging,  I believe it can still have a place in the blogging ecosystem. Remember that one key limitation of microblogging is the number of characters (e.g. Twitter’s 140 character limit). Live blogging is essentially free from this constraint. Another is the multimedia aspect of live blogging, such as the ability to post audio and video streams into a blog post.

Live blogging may not be hottest thing right now, but I believe it still has a use in specific situations to keep it from becoming completely obsolete.

–

UPDATE: Nah, I change my mind. Live blogging is dead.