Aardvark says I’m one of their best users, so they sent me a t-shirt and made me an “Aardvocate”.

I have been using vark for a couple of months during the private beta and find it fits me like a glove. It’s a Q&A service that differs from others in that it attempts to connect the [...]]]>

Aardvark says I’m one of their best users, so they sent me a t-shirt and made me an “Aardvocate”.

I have been using vark for a couple of months during the private beta and find it fits me like a glove. It’s a Q&A service that differs from others in that it attempts to connect the questioner and responder in a conversational way. It does this by using instant messaging as the interface.

You add Aardvark as an IM friend and then whenever you have a question about anything, just pop it open and ask it in an IM. Another user will then respond to the question. I find I usually get answers in less than 5 minutes. You can also ask it questions by email, which makes asking questions while mobile very easy.

On the answers side, you tell Aardvark a bunch of topics that you want to answer questions about. For instance, I’m set up to answer questions about programming, hockey, photography, Toronto, etc. When Aardvark receives a question, it pings people based on their interests via IM. You can choose to answer, pass, or refer it to someone who you think might know the answer.

I have tried it out on a broad range of topics and found that it has never let me down. Whether it is work related or finding the best beach in Maui for my honeymoon, it has become a valuable tool in my toolbox.

If anyone would like an invite, I have a handful left. Leave a comment and I’ll pass one along.

They just released a new feature that lets you subscribe to Twitter users and search results from within the app. To access the feature, go to your Browse for stuff menu item under the “Home” [...]]]> Google’s CEO may not be crystal clear on what Twitter is, but the guys over at Google Reader have some idea.

They just released a new feature that lets you subscribe to Twitter users and search results from within the app. To access the feature, go to your Browse for stuff menu item under the “Home” section. Then select the “Browse” tab. In the lower-right you will see what is pictured below:

If you submit as much news to Propeller as I do, you probably have become dependent [...]]]> You might have heard that social news site Propeller has launched a new version of the site. The site was given a new design and a number of new features, most notably a Groups feature similar to sub-reddits on reddit.

If you submit as much news to Propeller as I do, you probably have become dependent on their submission bookmarklet. Since the new site doesn’t have a bookmarklet yet, here’s an unofficial one that will work in the meantime. To use it, just save or drag the following link to your bookmarks toolbar:

… and then click it when you are viewing an article you would like to submit to Propeller.

You can always find an up-to-date user count on the live tracker.

Using the Python client library to work with the Facebook API made it easy to [...]]]> We just launched a new version of Touchpoint Gallery with a very important new Picture Source built in: Facebook. Now you can tap into the billions of photos on Facebook and use them as your screen saver and as your wallpaper.

Using the Python client library to work with the Facebook API made it easy to offer a slew of different options in this Picture Source. It’s our most robust Picture Source yet. With it, you can retrieve any of the following types of pictures from Facebook for use in Touchpoint Gallery:

• all of the pictures that you have been tagged in
• one of your albums
• all of your pictures
• all of one of your friends’ pictures
• one of your friends’ albums
• all pictures that one of your friends is tagged in
• all of your friends’ pictures

Lots more new Templates and Picture Sources coming soon!