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Blippr takes Twitter model, applies it to product reviews. In case you can't read from the screenshot above, Blippr lets users browse and rate commercial products including books, video games, movies, and music. The twist is that these reviews are incredibly short at just 160 characters, or the limit on an SMS message on your mobile phone. Twitter, the popular micropublishing tool pioneered this idea, and the folks at Blippr think it might work on product reviews. The fact that I need to write more about it is also one of the reasons that Blippr doesn't fit he bill for what it was created for. Sometimes reviews just need to be longer to give a product or service justice.

Coming back to the review system, the written reviews are coupled with a 1-4 rating system that uses emoticons (aww how cute) to establish a metascore for how good an item is. Blippr doubles as a social bookmarking tool, letting you create custom lists and subscribe to the day's hot list of products that are getting buzz. 'Lego-esque' gadgets tap into craze. MediaGate MG-450HD: Media streamer with expandable storage. Sony leery of the Eee PC? LAS VEGAS--As a computer, the Eee PC from Asus is intended to be the opposite of intimidating--it's made for children after all.

But its potential as a market force is apparently giving chills to its larger industry peers. Here at Sony's annual Open House event, the senior vice president of Sony's IT product division said the tiny $299 notebook could potentially shift the entire notebook industry. "If (the Eee PC from) Asus starts to do well, we are all in trouble. That's just a race to the bottom," said Mike Abary. He means that if mainstream PC buyers start to find their needs met by a lightweight, simply featured, inexpensive portable, it's likely to impel all of the major players in the industry to pile on by lowering their prices. If the Eee PC just catches on with Linux developers, enthusiasts, and the tech-savvy early adopter crowd, that's fine by him.

So should Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and their ilk be frightened of Asus? Sony's not the only one taking notice. Fundability: Make (Seed) Money Fast! I've had funding for projects before. Sometimes it has been a blessing. Sometimes it has been a downright curse. The lingering curse of having once been funded is being constantly approached by friends and acquaintances to find funding for their projects. Now I have a pat answer for them that doesn't require me to tell them outright how hard it will be to find funding for a paintball booth for a Halloween haunted house (just one random example from memory).

The answer is Fundability. I'm not absolutely 100% on it's effectiveness yet, as it's been a largely under the radar company, or at least largely under my radars. If you're an investor, you can set the system up to send you pre-screened deals sent to you by creating your 'Investor SweetSpot,' or join a virtual investment group, which allows you to distribute to groups of investors deals you find. For investors, they can have pre-screened deals sent automatically to them by creating an "Investor SweetSpot. " BricaBox Officially Launches Ning Competitor. We have Ning and WordPress, and we even have Google APIs, and other APIs offered on an individual scale by various startups and other social networks. So what if you’d like to take pieces of all of these offerings and make your own creation?

That’s what BricaBox is going for. Andy got to take a look at it a few months back when BricaBox launched its private beta at the BlogExpo in New York, and was quite impressed at the conglomerate approach that BricaBox has taken to the DIY niche site. Now BricaBox is officially launching to the public. Taking some drag’n'drop cues from Ning and the growing necessity to aggregate social media content, BricaBox lets you choose the modules you want in order to build the type of network you want.

With some customizable templates, you can choose to make a photo-sharing site, a local reviews site, a video-sharing site, or a wiki, to name a few. In terms of functionality, is this something a wiki can do? Google Talk Turns Into a Chat Widget. A new Google Talk feature called Chatback lets you put up a widget on your website which lets visitors send messages directly to your Google Talk account. Your visitors, however, don't need a Google talk account; they can simply start writing messages directly into the widget.

The chat opens up in a new window, so visitors can leave the actual site and keep chatting. Chatback is based on an iframe, so it's not only for blogs; you can put it up pretty much on any website you want. Just go to the official Chatback page and grab the code. If you're worried about visitors swarming your Google Talk accounts with silly questions, Google has thought of that; if you set your status to "busy," visitors won't be able to send you messages. Google Maps Now Offers Refined Neighborhood and Ratings Search. Google Maps is an evolving resource. What began as a simple Web-based roadmap quickly became something widely utilized for its satellite imagery and later turned into something of a mashup of business listings and traffic alerts and more - not to mention a faux GPS-like software device, offering user-enabled turn-by-turn on-the-go directions to iPhones and various other “smart” handhelds.

And after all those various upgrades and amendments have been made to the service, the folks at Google, as reported in the company's Lat Long Blog, have finally gotten around to releasing an extra useful feature long left to the back burner: a refined search feature that offers the inclusion of neighborhood and user ratings. You know, so you don’t have to look upon dozens and dozens of colored pins when trawling for restaurants in Manhattan and feel like you’re playing the lottery for lunch.

Yeah, that kind of thing. Now, we know what some of you might say. MyPunchBowl Launching Buzz on Friday: Just in Time to Party. Everyone likes to party, and for those dedicated partygoers, an updating system would be quite handy. I've found myself sending folks text messages while out at the club, coaxing them to come party with me. I've also been that lazy person that waits until someone informs me of where the good party actually is, so I don't have to waste any time club-hopping.

Helio Buzzd, for example. And while we're on the topic of buzzing social gatherings, MyPunchBowl has come clean with its plans for a Buzz section all its own. This is an RSS-based system that lets you stay in the loop regarding the party scene. And it's not just RSS. While you're sitting at home, drinking (alone), just waiting for the new MyPunchBowl Buzz feature to launch later this week, be sure to check out the company's new Hangover Facebook application. Diablo Cody Nude Shots Surface [Diablo Cody]

For Sale This Second: 1986 Rolls Royce Station Wagon, Bugaboo No. Alright, for some inexplicable reason, it's Rolls Royce Station Wagon season around here. No sooner do I post a random photo from the streets of London, than DT reader JJ Daddy-o turns up a 1986 Silver Spirit, custom converted into an estate by, it seems, the eBay seller himself. For some reason, he's been sitting on this artifact of his past coachbuilding life, and now in the span of a few hours, he's trying to whip up a frenzy to sell the darn thing offline. At a price somewhere between the opening bid of $28,000 and the "offers over £17,600" the guy is claiming to have waiting for him. Though they're not as fugly as the later mutants like the Silver Seraph and the Phantom, I'm confess, I'm not a huge fan of the chunky, 80's era Rolls Royces.

And more specifically, the D-pillar on this don't seem too clean. 1986 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Spur/Dawn ESTATE CAR, somewhere between $28,000 and £17,600, auction ends any second [ebay via dt reader jj daddy-o] Blik: Wee Gallery Garden. Brought to You By: Bill Gates: Backstage at the Office Developer.