Las Vegas Web Design

Quick: what was the most widely-used form of media in 2008? If you guessed Internet news sites, blogs, or social networks, you’d be way off. Network TV news (NBC, CBS, ABC) is still used by the highest percentage of adult Internet users, with local newspapers and local TV news occupying the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively, in a recently released survey from Ketchum.

While old media is still on top, the trends in the survey, which has been conducted each of the last three years, point to a familiar story: media consumption habits are quickly changing. That said, some forms of new media are performing much better than others. For example:

- Blogs are now used by 24% of Internet users, up from 13% in 2006

- Social networks are now used by 26% of Internet users, up from 17% in 2006

- Videocasts are now used by 11% of Internet users, up from 6% in 2006

Slower growers include:

- RSS feeds: growing from 5 to 7 percent

- Podcasts: growing from 5 to 7 percent

- Business news sites: flat at 8 percent

Meanwhile, on the old media side of the house, some mediums are shrinking faster than others, with local TV news leading the decline, from 74% usage in 2006 to 62% last year. Cable news seems to be taking its place to some extent, growing from 47% to 49% usage in the same period. Here’s the full chart, courtesy of eMarketer:

The declining usage for old media isn’t much of a surprise. But looking at the growth rates for different forms of new media, it’s apparent that some tools are catching on way faster than others, also not a surprise if you consider the topics we tend to focus on: social networking, blogging, and video. In all, the study re-enforces what you should be focusing on and prioritizing if you’re responsible for getting a company up-and-running in the world of new media.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl

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Mashable has partnered with Twestival to promote the world’s largest Twitter fundraising drive. Today, New York Twestival co-organizer Paull Young explains the campaign’s vision.

Social media can be a transformative force for society. For the individual, whose community now extends beyond geographical limitations into global common interest groups. For corporations, who are beginning to embrace new methods of communicating with consumers. But most importantly, social media can be a tool to enable social change.

The latest example of this is Twestival– an event taking place on February 12 in over 100 cities around the world, bringing Twitter users together with their local communities to raise money and awareness for charity:water, an innovative non-profit dedicated to providing clean water to developing communities in desperate need.

Charity:water is a natural fit with the decentralized, global ethos of the social media community. Its commitment to the aggregation of many discrete efforts, its use of the Web to provide transparent communications of its efforts, and its focus on cumulative action to do the most possible good worldwide are perfectly aligned with the key tenets of social media. Each 140-character tweet from an individual contributes to the worldwide social narrative that is Twitter, and each small donation to charity:water is another drop in the bucket that can quench the thirst of many people in need.

Twestival = Social Media for Social Change

Last September, a group of Twitter users based in London organized a live tweetup accompanied by a food drive and fundraising for a local charity. As a result of the event’s success, Twestival was borne out of the idea that if local Twitterers in several cities collaborate on an international scale, it could have a spectacular global impact.

On February 12, thousands of socially engaged Twitter users will convene at specific venues in cities across five continents to meet, mingle and make a difference. There are already events being planned across the globe from New York to Sydney, but Twitter users who don’t already have a Twestival in their cities can sign up to spearhead a local event themselves.

Twestival New York’s 20/20/20 Vision

Twestival New York will take place at M2 (formerly Mansion) in Manhattan with ticket prices starting at just $20. 100% of funds raised will be donated to charity:water, whose funding model ensures that the full amount of donations goes directly to communities in need.

Since it costs charity:water between $4,000 and $12,000 to build a well in a developing country, a donation of $20 can provide one person with fresh water for 20 years. In this spirit, Twestival New York is encouraging attendees to use “20/20/20 vision”: give $20, raise $20 and tell 20 friends.

Give $20: A minimum $20 donation for Twestival New York is a simple act to provide one person with clean water. Pay the entry fee for your Twestival local event through event sponsor Amiando to take the first step to support charity:water’s mission.

Raise $20: Take it further and raise money by inspiring those around you to donate as well, whether they can attend Twestival themselves or not. Ask four of your friends for just $5. Make it easy by encouraging them to donate using Tipjoy, one of Twestival’s global partners. Last year, Mashable founder Pete Cashmore and I joined hundreds of other people born in September in an impromptu fundraiser for charity:water, the cumulative efforts raising almost $1 million for the cause.

Simply putting a call out to your existing network for donations can have a powerful result, especially when you’re joining with thousands of other Twestival attendees around the world.

Tell 20 People: By its very nature Twestival will spark a great deal of word of mouth through the vocal digerati – this provides ample opportunity for charity:water to reach a whole new audience of potential supporters.

Raise awareness for Twestival by utilizing all the platforms at your disposal: Twitter about it (use the hashtag #twestival), blog about it, add a charity:water banner to your Web site, mention it in your Facebook status and join the Facebook Cause, share charity:water’s inspiring videos. Go old-school and send out a mass e-mail to your friends, why not?

It’s Not Just About the Party

Although Twestival is a fun event to provide Twitter users with a venue in order to meet and have a good time, it’s important to focus on the fact that the true goal is to harness social media and effect social change. The fact is that 1.1 billion people around the world don’t have clean water - that’s 1/6 of the world’s population, for scale consider that GigaTweet highlights that this audience is currently equal to the total number of tweets on Twitter.

For perspective: unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. The world’s children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water — of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from contaminated water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

Get Involved

There’s room for everyone in this first-of-its-kind event. Attend your local Twestival and turn your online mates into real-life friends, show the world how Twitter and social media can spark real change, and help the needy obtain safe drinking water in the process. When global citizens work together, just one tweet, one 20-dollar bill, one drop in the bucket can make an enormous, long-lasting, worldwide impact.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Mashable and Twestival Announce Global Media PartnershipSocial Media for Real World Social ChangeChange.gov: Obama’s Campaign Slogan Becomes a WebsiteBe a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox ExtensionSocial Media’s Delusion of GrandeurTicket Giveaway to SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CAChange.org Launches Social Action Blog Network

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It seems like everyone has an iPhone or at least an iPod Touch these days, and we’re all anxious to share our personal favs and app horror stories with our friends. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been an easy way to compare our app cheat sheets, until now.

LivingSocial, the site that lets you share and organize your favorite things from a wide variety of categories, has ramped up their offerings to include an area dedicated to iPhone apps. The new addition offers members an easy way stay in sync with the iPhone apps their friends love and hate.

Whether you’re using the Facebook app or the LivingSocial site, the new app-centric features keep you current on what apps your friends have tried, reviewed, and rated. And from their lists, you can also add your own rating, share your perspective, or purchase apps of interest.

The Facebook application also has an activity feed with real-time updates from your pals new reviews or additions. Plus you can create app lists, choose to add your activity to your profile, comment on your friend’s activity, manage all your iPhone apps in one place, export your list to CSV, or create a widget to use elsewhere.

Unfortunately you will have to manually add your iPhone apps, but once you do you can see related/recommended apps based on your preferences, so it’s pretty quick to get a decent personal repository going. And should you need more LivingSocial on the road, there’s also a complimentary iPhone app which debuted back in October.

More iPhone Resources From Mashable

- 12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch

- 70+ Free iPhone Apps for Social Media Mavens

- Beyond YouTube: 10 Top iPhone Video Apps

- 15+ Free iPhone Apps to Navigate Your World

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:LivingSocial Debuts iPhone App for Mobile ReviewsWorld’s Simplest iPhone AppiPhone to Launch in Germany on T-Mobile3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneApple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?European iPhone to be Offered on Multiple Carriers

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Google today introducedMeasurement Lab, a set of tools (some already working, some upcoming) for network diagnostics. To create them, Google partnered with the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, and several academic researchers.

These tools include the Network Diagnostic Tool, which tests your connection speed and gives you a diagnosis on speed issues; Glasnost, which tests whether your ISP is blocking or throttling BitTorrent connections, and Network Path and Application Diagnosis, which helps you find problems that usually plague last-mile broadband networks.

The thing is, tools of this kind have existed for years. There’s literally dozens of them, so what Google and partners are offering is nothing new.

However, Google is making a statement here. Before, tools such as these have been reserved for network administrators, hackers and other experts; now, Google is trying to introduce them to a wider audience. It’s not really that important if this wider audience will actually use these tools; what’s important is the fact that Google is taking a stand, saying: we’re going to help you fight for net neutrality even if the ISPs don’t like it.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make, even for a giant like Google. If these tools were coming from another source, the ISPs would probably simply employ measures that render them useless. However, it’s much harder to block a service if Google stands behind it. On the other hand, even Google doesn’t want to anger every ISP that’s throttling network traffic in some way - and many of them are doing it. Net neutrality has just received a huge push; probably one that will ultimately turn the tide to its favor.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:ComScore Tweaks Metrics System for Time Spent OnlinePageview’s Retirement: Bad for Google and MySpacePodtrac - More Podcast AdvertisingInternet Advertising Still Booming, But Needs StandardsGoogle to Introduce New Ad Buying Software for Demographic TargetingHow to Measure Social Media ROI for BusinessNielsen Launches Improved Video Tracking Tools

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You already know that you can use your iPhone to view your computer remotely. That’s yesterday’s news. What is current, though, is the brand new ReachMyFile iPhone app that lets you remotely access your files on your Mac and download them or send to contacts via email.

ReachMyFile adds the missing piece between your iPhone or iPod Touch and your iMac or MacBook — essentially giving you complete access to your Mac from your mobile. There is an additional software download required, but together with the mobile app, ReachMyFile provides an encrypted peer-to-peer network for you to securely transfer files from your home base to your pocket-friendly device.

The app gives you access to all your files - everything - which includes images, presentations, videos, icons, and even Skitch content, and both iPhoto and Photo Booth libraries.

You can also download and view audio and video files [image above is a screen grab from .mov video], as well as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs, PNG and JPEG file formats. Previously downloaded content is made easily accessed from within the app and can be deleted if need be.

Another cool feature is the email option, which once configured from the ReachMyFile desktop software, can send your files to your iPhone contacts, or a manually entered email address.

If $19.99 is too steep a price for remote file access, the lite version is nice free alternative that limits file downloads and doesn’t let you email files from the app.

I noticed a few minor bugs when returning to the main menu after downloading and watching a .mov file, but as a whole the app works extremely fast, is straightforward to use, and something that will definitely come in handy when my computer is out of reach.

More iPhone Resources From Mashable

- 50+ iPhone Apps to Enhance Your Photo and Video Experience

- 15+ Free iPhone Apps to Navigate Your World

- 70+ Free iPhone Apps for Social Media Mavens

- 100+ iPhone Games That Use the Accelerometer

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Wixi’s Optimized but Limited iPhone VersionApple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?iZoho - Office Apps for your iPhoneReboot Your Media Temple Server from Your iPhoneSteve Jobs Will Fight iPhone Unlocking HacksBox.net Extends Your iPhone StorageZimbra Optimized for Your iPhone

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The OpenID Foundation has a new, very important member: PayPal. I say very important because unlike many other web services, when it comes to online identification, PayPal simply must get it right.

This doesn’t mean you’ll be able to log into your PayPal account with your OpenID account, but it means that OpenID might one day get “upgraded” to the point where it can be used for high security/retail transactions. The fact that PayPal is joining the OpenID foundation as a sustaining corporate member of the Board (more precisely, they donate $50,000 to the foundation each year) means they’ve taken a good, long look at OpenID and they consider it a viable option for unique online identification.

PayPal selected Andrew Nash, senior Director of Information Risk Management, as their representative. He will join the current board of seven community elected board members, and five other sustaining corporate members: Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign and Yahoo. You can find the full list of Board’s members on the OpenID Foundation site.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:The Daily Poll: How Often Do You Use OpenID to Login?Another Victory For OpenID: Yahoo Announces SupportBlogger’s OpenID Support Now OfficialCallVerifiD Introduces A New Layer of SecurityWikispaces Adds OpenID SuportBlogger Beta Gets OpenID SupportOpenID Management Comes to Flock

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Audiolife is a new service that just launched in public beta, offering musicians a one stop shop for creation and distribution of music, merchandise and other music-related goods.

The process goes like this: you create your virtual store and use Audiolife’s free tools to create content such as ringtones, CDs and even t-shirts. Then - again, using the tools that Audiolife provides - you can embed the store into other websites or blogs. Audiolife will then take care of manufacturing, shipping, sales tracking and transactions.

Audiolife also lets you set your own prices, update all your products whenever and as often you like, track your sales and monitor the statistics, and re-order CDs and merch for live shows. Any update you make on Audiolife will also automatically update all the mini-stores you’ve embedded elsewhere.

Sounds great, especially if you’re an indie band who likes to take matters into their own hands. Bands often have enough creative power among their members and friends to design their merchandise - CDs, posters, shirts - themselves, but they just don’t have an effective means to do it properly and distribute it worldwide.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work the other way round. If you’re not a resident of the US, you cannot work with Audiolife. Here’s what the FAQ says:

“At present, only residents of the United States with a valid U.S. Social Security or Tax Identification Number can use Audiolife to sell products. To apply for an Audiolife account, go to http://www.audiolife.com/signup/. If you currently reside out of the United States, please keep checking back with us. We are working hard to be able to offer Audiolife services to everyone in the world.”

Audiofile is free to use; it makes money when you sell something. It’s not percentage based; Audiolife takes a pre-set, flat fee that depends on the type of content you’re selling. Fee details are listed within individual categories of content creation. For example, if you sell a digital copy of your album, Audiolife takes 4 dollars; if you sell a physical CD, the fee is 5 dollars. You can set a price for your album anywhere above these prices. It’s hard to tell whether the prices are too high; the feature set that Audiolife offers for free is definitely great value, since you can basically manage your entire music & merch sales from your living room. However, I’ll leave it to the musicians to compare the prices with other similar services and judge for themselves; if you have an opinion on Audiolife’s pricing or service, please share it in the comments.

Check out some featured stores over at the official site, and a video tour of Audiolife below:

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Are you seeking a change of pace or a new job? Mashable’s job boards are currently open for business! We at Mashable firmly believe that one of the lucky recipients of a new job can be you. This week and every week, Mashable will be featuring its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web 2.0 space and beyond. Have a look at what’s good and new on our job boards:

Backend Developer at a confidential company located in Irvine, CA.

The company seeks a developer with strong object-oriented development experience in a fast-paced environment. This developer will have extensive experience in developing complex web-based services and will have worked in a test or behavior driven AGILE environment.

Job details can be found here

iPhone/iPod Touch Developer at a company in Irvine, CA.

The company is looking for an individual who knows how to develop specifically for the iPhone platform. This developer will have published applications through the App Store or (preferably) through Ad Hoc/In-house Enterprise distribution. He will have experience in developing user interface elements and using the native components to their fullest.

Read more here.

Web UI Developer at a company in Irvine, CA.

We are an interactive marketing agency looking for a programmer who specializes in creating user interfaces on the web. They will have experience in developing progressively-enhanced web site front ends with intuitive functionality, and will have extensive experience in cross-browser debugging and compatibility.

Full details are located here.

Web Architect and Developer at the Burleson Technology Group in Houston, TX (though commuting is allowed!)

BTG is a web development and web consulting firm looking for smart, passionate web developers and designers to join our team. You can work from home but it is preferred that you live close enough to an airport so we can occasionally meet face to face or travel to a client site. We have a couple of projects starting this month that use Drupal and Confluence but we always need these skills and experience.

The job details can be found here.

CTO/Lead Programmer at O Negative Media in Los Angeles, CA.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Chief Technology Officer/Lead Programmer to spearhead the development of gaming applications on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and stand-alone websites. Candidates should know the Facebook API, the MySpace Developer Platform, and OpenSocial and possess knowledge of PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, LAMP opensource projects, and database architecture. CS majors preferred and AJAX/Python/Flash/Rails skills are pluses.

Read the job description for more information.

User Experience Designer/Architect at Sonicbids in Boston, MA.

Sonicbids.com is looking for a top-notch User Experience Designer to join our rapidly growing business. With our focus on building usable products and a world-class site experience, we need highly talented and motivated individuals to join our team and help us deliver. Working as part of our product team, the UX Designer/Architect will provide user experience leadership for strategic product initiatives and enhanced website functionality. This position is full-time on-site at our offices in Boston, MA.

Full job details are just a click away.

Flash Games Developer at PickTeams in New York, NY.

We are looking to hire a Flash Engineer with experience developing online game applications. They should have knowledge in Actionscript, Flex, Flash; a solid understanding of OO-programming and software design/application development; the ability to create vector-art in Flash, or at least a good sense of design and artistic eye, and can work well with others. 3D modeling in Flash / Shockwave is a plus.

The details for this job are listed here.

Account Buzzecutive at thekbuzz in Queens, NY.

theKbuzz, a word of mouth marketing, social media, and buzz marketing firm based in Queens, NY, is looking to fill an Account Buzzecutive position in a fast-paced, high-energy, startup environment. This person should enjoy developing relationships with customers and communicating with active clients. We are looking for someone who is smart, driven, energetic, unafraid, and outgoing, who is social media /online savvy, and has excellent communication and organizational skills.

Read more about this job here.

Programming Apprentice at thehappycorp global in New York, NY.

A temporary contact position devoted to learning and creating mind melting work. The Programming Apprentice will work directly with the Lead Technologist in researching and refining emerging technologies as well as developing, defining, and creating others. Day to day this position involves influencing the design and development of mobile, web, physical and desktop applications.

All job details are here.

Head of New Business at E Interactive Design in Columbus, GA (but telecommuting is allowed!).

This position is for a Costa Rica web development firm. The individual must have successful experiences responding to RFPs, particularly with website development and online applications, be able to operate without supervision, be well connected, set up for lead generation, and have some familiarity with new media (i.e. social media)

The job is listed here.

Vice President Technology/CTO at Healogica in New York, NY.

This person will be responsible for setting the direction and managing the execution of all aspects of worldwide technology development and will be a key co-founding member of Team Healogica. In addition, this position will also have significant involvement in product development and management and will offer the candidate the opportunity to do a wide range of cool and interesting things.

The job details are all outlined here.

Product Manager at FirstGiving in Somerville, MA.

We are seeking a Product Manager with strong program management experience in an online business. This individual will define a vision and manage the entire product lifecycle for our online fundraising platform.

Read more about the job here.

User Interface Software Engineer at Sales Graphics Corp. in New York, NY.

The right candidate is experienced building user interfaces in multiple technologies and in web, desktop, and other application environments, who will be comfortable in a small company atmosphere and ready to take on any engineering task needed as part of a small, dedicated technical team.

The rest of the job description is here.

Web Designer at Magnetic in Tampa, FL.

Magnetic, an Internet development company founded in 1997, seeks an experienced and highly-qualified Web Designer. As a Web Designer for Magnetic, you will be responsible for designing the user interface for web sites and web-based applications.

Additional details and job responsibilities here.

Senior Developer at Red Room in San Francisco, CA.

We are searching for an experienced, highly detail-oriented, innovative, Senior Developer who will be charged with continuing to develop our website content delivery and management system.

Yes, this is a developer position. Yes, the page title says recruiter. But the details for the job show it’s not. Read them here.

Sr. Product Manager at Beliefnet.com in New York, NY.

Beliefnet.com, the largest spirituality website, is looking for a senior product manager with strong internet product development skills and expertise in social networking. Working closely with senior management and assorted cross-departmental teams, the Senior Product Manager will be responsible for consistently assessing and improving the overall performance of Beliefnet.com social network and core Beliefnet.com products. This position reports to the VP, Product Management and is located in New York, NY.

More details about the job is here.

Perl Developer at Publisher’s Clearing House in Port Washington, NY.

Publishers Clearing House (PCH), headquartered in the comfortable suburban surroundings of Port Washington, New York is one of America’s largest direct marketers and is the leader in their industry. pch.com was started in 1997 and is now the leader in sweepstakes marketing on the Internet. Through value-based magazine and merchandise offers, rich promotions, and sweepstakes excitement, PCH is able to attract customers and achieve sales growth year after year. Initial customer traffic is driven by the sweepstakes from email, banners, co-registration and other online direct marketing. Then, through a variety of list-building techniques and surveying, pch.com creates rich customer profiles. PCH is currently seeking a Perl Developer. We are looking for someone who is excited about technology and can bring new ideas to the table. This is an on-site position in Port Washington, Long Island.

The job description is here.

Interactive Strategic Planner at DeVito Verdi in New York, NY.

DeVito/Verdi, which has been voted “Best Agency” six times over the last 12 years by the 4A’s, has created some of the most memorable ad campaigns of the past 15 years. DeVito/Verdi strives for excellence and maintains a unique level of prestige within the advertising industry, as evidenced by its work for such clients as Meijer, The National Association of Broadcasters, Sony, Canon, BMW, Circuit City, Daffy’s, Esquire Magazine, TimeOut Magazine, Grey Goose Vodka, Hotwire.com, CarMax, The Sports Authority, and others.

We are currently looking for an individual with a background in comprehensive, interactive strategic planning. The candidate should be able to create unique and sustainable plans for creating value, solving challenges and gaining competitive advantages for our clients.

Get the details and job description right over here.

Senior PHP Developer at Ignighter in New York, NY.

Ignighter is looking for a rock star PHP developer with a skill set that leans toward the front-end. Knowledge of technologies like CSS, HTML, PHP, and AJAX are a must. Object-Oriented Programming experience is required. This developer will be the company’s first technical hire and work directly under our Lead Developer. Being such an early hire in our venture-funded company, the developer will obviously have a major impact on our product. This developer should enjoy the challenges and benefits of working at a quickly growing startup company.

The job details are here.

Mashable has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development, and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at Mashable’s Job Board.

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($50 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

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The last thing you need is yet another calendar application trying to make you more efficient or productive, right? By now, you’ve probably discovered the right methodology that works for you. That’s great, keep your system - but now you can add a simple layer to your workflow for quick to-do adds and updating via IM, email, and Ubiquity command with Deadline.

Deadline is a dead simple reminder app that lets you type your upcoming meetings, events, lunches, and what not, in plain English - “lunch with Matt on Friday at 1pm” - and receive reminders via email or Jabber/GTalk. Users can also do quick-adds through those services, plus a custom Mozilla Ubiquity command, and get desktop alerts via Fluid or Bubbles.

The latest news for this multifaceted reminder app is the addition of SMS reminders, currently offered free of charge to the first 50 people to use the code “mash9″ during registration. SMS reminders will only be free for a limited trial period, and you can only receive up to 10 per day, but it’s a convenient addition to the product that you can test out for free. If you miss your window of opportunity to use the code, but still want to take advantage of the free SMS trial, just get three friends to sign up to Deadline and your SMS trial will be activated.

The great thing about Deadline is that you can configure it to go where you go. Add a lunch date on the fly with the Ubiquity command (when enabled) “deadline-add,” or the “add” command via Jabber, and then let Deadline send you reminders, or update your preferred calendar by subscribing to the feed/URL (grab it in the settings section) for iCal, Google Calendar, or any other calendar app with feed support.

Meanwhile, if you simply opt to use the Web interface for updates and editing, you’ll notice the sleek interface with a one line text box, search capabilities, a few simple task options for scheduled to-dos, and the ability to customize Deadline’s appearance.

So what do you think of Deadline? Tell us your opinion in the comments.

More To Do Resources From Mashable

- 40+ Tools For Google Calendar

- 65+ Online Calendars and Calendar Tools

- Online Productivity Toolbox: 30+ Resources to Get Things Done

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Yahoo Gives Microsoft More Time to Nominate DirectorsPlugg Conference - 25% OffCNET: Microsoft and Yahoo in “Informal Talks”Yahoo And Microsoft - The Stalemate ContinuesYouTube Concedes To Japanese DemandsYouTube’s Japanese Deadline is TodayWow: AOL Acquires Bebo For $850 Million

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Oh, man. There’s nothing more frustrating for a journalist or a blogger when he gets a piece of news like this: it’s hard to skip it because it is news, and you can’t write anything intelligent because the site/service hasn’t launched yet (and won’t for quite some time.)

I’m talking about Moneywatch, CBS’s upcoming personal finance site, due to really launch in Spring 2009. Why CBS chose to announce it a couple of months earlier? Maybe they fear that the recession (and thus heightened interest in personal finance) will end very soon (ha, ha) and they’ll lose momentum for this thing.

In any case, the Moneywatch.com is currently mostly greyed out and consists of a preview video (which you can see below) and a short notice that “this is the future home of Moneywatch.”

Editorial director of the site will be Eric Schurenberg, the former managing editor of Money Magazine. As far as what the site actually will contain once it launches, we have no choice but to believe Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, when he says “MoneyWatch.com fills a need at CBS for a trusted brand around personal finance and we look forward to working with the team to incorporate the MoneyWatch.com content and editorial experts into our programming to bring critical and useful financial advice to our viewers.” Yeah, more on that when we can check it for ourselves.

Interestingly enough, CBS once partly owned another finance-related website, marketwatch.com, before it was acquired by Dow Jones in January 2005 for over $500 million.

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