Good news for avid Yahoo! Messenger and Facebook users! Yahoo! has recently released a beta version of Yahoo! Messenger 11 to the public which, aside from the usual features (instant messaging, text, voice and video calls) allows users to play social games, manage multiple social network accounts and chat with Facebook friends.

With Yahoo! Messenger 11 beta, users will be able to play social games from Zynga, Elex and OMGPOP like Balloono, Pool, Happy Harvest, Happy Manor and popular Facebook games Fishville and Mafia Wars with their friends. Users can also share game activities and play-status so friends can join their games and vice versa.

Yahoo! Messenger 11 also enables users to manage their social networks directly from the IM client. Users can view, comment, like and post updates on multiple social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Yahoo! Pulse, etc. Another cool feature is the addition of the Facebook Chat support. Now, you can chat with your buddies on Facebook directly from Yahoo! Messenger.

Mobile users are not left behind as video and voice calls, photo and video sharing are also now available on the iPhone and Android devices. Video calling and multitasking is available for iPod Touch (4th gen) and iPhone 3GS/4 running on iOS 4.1. Video calling on Android devices require OS 2.2+ and the Yahoo! Messenger Video Add-on and for now, only supports the MyTouch 4G and EVO models.

To learn more and download the new Yahoo! Messenger 11 Beta, visit http://messenger.yahoo.com/beta/win/.

Anyone tried the beta version of Yahoo! Messenger 11? How do you like the new features? Which feature do you like best – playing social games or Facebook Chat support? Please share your thoughts.

[image source: Yahoo! Messenger Blog]

• Good news for my kababayans (countrymen), PayPal Philippines now has full features. This means that aside from sending money capabilities and the new withdrawal features, registered members in the Philippines and Indonesia can now receive funds from 90 markets and 17 currencies.
• Miguel Paraz and the Philippine Interconnectivity story.
• Dexter shares the lessons he’s learned on how to earn from linking to other sites.
• Learn how to block specific sites using a firewall with Eli.
• McBilly on why some make money online blogs don’t make money.
• Wanna increase traffic to your blog? Write about current events.
• Google Earth adds YouTube videos. via Brown Baron’s blog
• AJ shows us a preview of the deliciously new del.icio.us.
• Manuel Viloria on the Viral Cash Cow.
• Haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.3 yet? Here’s several incompatible plugins and additional tips for upgrading to WP 2.3 from my friend Joni.

Last week’s roundup didn’t get any comments or feedback. It could be because that it was on the same weekend of the Pacquiao vs Barrera 2 fight. But it made me think whether this feature is still worth doing and if someone is actually reading it.

Anyways, I’d like to get your opinions or any type of feedback especially from my regular readers regarding this weekly feature. Should I continue doing this weekend roundup? Please help me out here. Thank you and have a good weekend!

One of the things I usually do when I login to my dashboard is to check on site stats. While I was browsing Shortstat, I found a site that was relatively new. I mean, it was the first time for this site to show up on my stats. Curiosly, I clicked on the url and was brought to this blog.

I found out that it was a tech blog owned by a Malaysian blogger. As I browsed thru the first few entries, there was nothing unusual about it. The regular tech news and stuff. Then when I reached the 3rd and 4th posts, I was surprised to see that both were about two topics that I also blogged about a week ago, Kool IM & Blogmusik.

So what I did, I read the full entry for each post. First was the Kool IM post. I was more surprised to read that the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs were exactly the same with my own post, word-for-word! Then I went to the next post, about Blogmusik. This entry was totally copied from my post. No paraphrases, quotes or anything. Not even a trackback for that post. But at the end of the entry he posted a link to the source, which of course was no other than my blog.

UPDATE: I decided to show you a comparison of my entries and the other guy’s entries.

Kool IM

Me:

Kool IM is the latest thing in web chat services.

What is it you say? Kool IM is an Ajax instant messaging client that works with major instant messaging services that allows logging onto AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk & Jabber, eliminating the need for an instant-messaging client on the user’s computer. The most popular web instant messaging clients are Meebo and eBuddy. While other competitors include ILoveIM and Mabber.

Kool IM integrates features from Meebo and eBuddy. It uses a pop-up window for the buddy list and for chatting like eBuddy. Like Meebo it allows users to create accounts, so you won’t have to login every time for each service.

I tried it out earlier and it was okay. Personally, I still prefer Meebo for one major reason, “pop-ups”. I hate pop-ups. Most browsers try to eliminate pop-up windows. In Meebo you have your buddy list and chat windows integrated inside the same browser window and you can drag them around or resize them.

These things are helpful especially if you’re in the office or the machine you’re using doesn’t allow you to install an instant messenger client. One example is a computer lab where as a simple user, you don’t have access to install programs. Just launch a web browser, type in the url, login to your accounts and you’re good to go!

Blogger guy:

Now, you do no need to open every single messenger if you gonna chat with your friends with different software (instant messaging client). With Kool IM, you can make them into one. Save space, save memory, and save time too. Why not have a try ?!

Kool IM is an Ajax instant messaging client that works with major instant messaging services that allows logging onto AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk & Jabber, eliminating the need for an instant-messaging client on the user’s computer. The most popular web instant messaging clients are Meebo and eBuddy. While other competitors include ILoveIM and Mabber.

Kool IM integrates features from Meebo and eBuddy. It uses a pop-up window for the buddy list and for chatting like eBuddy. Like Meebo it allows users to create accounts, so you won’t have to login every time for each service.

Blogmusik

Me:

Blogmusik is a new site that allows you to listen to on-demand songs online for FREE!

Blogmusik uses a Flash-based virtual player that looks exactly like an iPod and works exactly like one. It includes a Play/Pause button, Skip button (Previous track and Next track), Volume control, a Playlist button to access your saved playlists and an option to share it to a friend. You can also change the player skin to black or white. Regular users can only listen to songs one at a time. While registered users can create/save playlists and save songs into each playlist.

The site can be accessed in two languages, English and French. To register, just provide an email address and password. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a menu on top. Click on New Playlist and type a name for that playlist. Now that you have a playlist, you can start adding songs to it. To search for songs, type on the space provided right below the virtual iPod. Type in the name of the artist or title of any song, click OK and it will show you the search results on the right side of the player. Look for the song that you like and click on Save and choose which playlist you want to save it to. Repeat the same steps to add other songs. In your playlist, use your mouse wheel to scroll thru the songs. Registered users can also manager their playlists (delete songs, change song order). I was hoping that they’d let the users, edit the file name of the song coz some of the files had very long names and had some extra info that I wanted to edit.

Blogmusik is still in it’s Beta version so expect some bugs and improvements in the near future. Also, be aware that the site opens a pop-up every few minutes or after every song. I have no problem with it coz Firefox blocks it right away. If your browser doesn’t automatically block it, you might have to do it manually coz if you don’t, you’ll have a lot of pop-ups while you’re listening to the songs.

Note: Earphones not included. Hehe

Blogger guy:

Blogmusik is a new site that allows you to listen to on-demand songs online for FREE! Blogmusik uses a Flash-based virtual player that looks exactly like an iPod and works exactly like one. It includes a Play/Pause button, Skip button (Previous track and Next track), Volume control, a Playlist button to access your saved playlists and an option to share it to a friend. You can also change the player skin to black or white. Regular users can only listen to songs one at a time. While registered users can create/save playlists and save songs into each playlist.

The site can be accessed in two languages, English and French. To register, just provide an email address and password. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a menu on top. Click on New Playlist and type a name for that playlist. Now that you have a playlist, you can start adding songs to it. To search for songs, type on the space provided right below the virtual iPod. Type in the name of the artist or title of any song, click OK and it will show you the search results on the right side of the player. Look for the song that you like and click on Save and choose which playlist you want to save it to. Repeat the same steps to add other songs. In your playlist, use your mouse wheel to scroll thru the songs. Registered users can also manager their playlists (delete songs, change song order). I was hoping that they’d let the users, edit the file name of the song coz some of the files had very long names and had some extra info that I wanted to edit.

Blogmusik is still in it’s Beta version so expect some bugs and improvements in the near future. Also, be aware that the site opens a pop-up every few minutes or after every song. I have no problem with it coz Firefox blocks it right away. If your browser doesn’t automatically block it, you might have to do it manually coz if you don’t you’ll have a lot of pop-ups while you’re listening to the songs.

I didn’t expect that someone would even bother to do this. Now I know how Cathy felt when this happened to her (although hers was a bit different coz the copycat blogger was using her rss feeds). I’m not gonna post his url here coz it’s just gonna drive site traffic to his blog. Hehe. You can send me an email and I’ll give you the url. Btw, I already sent an email to that guy and asked if he could change his entries and make it more like his own work or atleast quote me. We’ll see if he replies and does something about it. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Kool IM is the latest thing in web chat services.

What is it you say? Kool IM is an Ajax instant messaging client that works with major instant messaging services that allows logging onto AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk & Jabber, eliminating the need for an instant-messaging client on the user’s computer. The most popular web instant messaging clients are Meebo and eBuddy. While other competitors include ILoveIM and Mabber.

Kool IM integrates features from Meebo and eBuddy. It uses a pop-up window for the buddy list and for chatting like eBuddy. Like Meebo it allows users to create accounts, so you won’t have to login every time for each service.

I tried it out earlier and it was okay. Personally, I still prefer Meebo for one major reason, “pop-ups”. I hate pop-ups. Most browsers try to eliminate pop-up windows. In Meebo you have your buddy list and chat windows integrated inside the same browser window and you can drag them around or resize them.

These things are helpful especially if you’re in the office or the machine you’re using doesn’t allow you to install an instant messenger client. One example is a computer lab where as a simple user, you don’t have access to install programs. Just launch a web browser, type in the url, login to your accounts and you’re good to go!

Earlier this week I received an invite for Windows Live Messenger Beta, which I requested from Kristin. Thanks Kristin! I’ve started using it and I think it’s cool and a bit better than Yahoo Messenger.

Today, I received a notification that I have 5 invites that I could give away but I’m left with 3 coz I already promised one to Abe and another one to a friend. So if you want an invite, just post a comment with your email address. The first four people to post will get the invites. First come, first served!

What you will be able to do with it

• Send all your familiar winks and emoticons, plus some cool new ones
• Have real-time text, video and voice conversations*
• Call your friends’ mobile or land-line telephones by signing up for MCI Web
• Calling to make affordable domestic and international calls
• Easily share documents of all kinds with Sharing Folders
• Make free PC-to-PC calls with other Messenger users

*Both parties must have compatible Web cameras, speakers, and microphones.

System Requirements

• Multimedia PC
• Pentium 233 MHz process (500 MHz recommended)
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Minimum 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
• Up to 50 MB of hard disk space for installation, 15 MB to run the program.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 SP1 or later must be installed on your computer, though it does not need to be your default.
• Minimum 800 x 600 screen resolution