As expected since yesterday, Facebook has launched the Open Stream API, which lets third-party developers use Facebook’s activity stream inside their own applications and services.

Developers will be able to filter and remix the stream – consisting of status updates, photos, videos, notes, as well as likes and comments on all the above – as they see fit. They will also be able to create content directly in the streams; for example, an application will be able to change the user’s status update.

Such an open approach did wonders for Twitter, and it means that we can soon expect hundreds of new applications developed for Facebook. We’ll see advanced applications like Tweetdeck applied to Facebook. For many advanced, tech-savvy users, Facebook’s homepage will become obsolete as they move on to applications that offer even more options. It also means that Facebook will get even more free PR as all these new applications start hitting the mailboxes of technology oriented blogs.

All of this will, however, work only for users who give the individual application access to their stream. From the official documentation (emphasis mine):

“Instead of prompting your users for the status_update, photo_upload, video_upload, create_note, and share_item extended permissions, you can simply prompt them for the publish_stream extended permission, and that single permission lets your users update their statuses, upload photos and videos, write notes, and share links all from your application or site.”

Twitter does not have this restriction, and although it probably won’t stop developers from creating applications on the Open Stream API, ultimately it will always mean that all these applications aren’t perfect; i.e., they don’t necessarily deliver all the data you see on Facebook itself.

Beta partners include Adobe, which has created a stream Notifier, and Seesmic Desktop, an advanced Twitter and Seesmic AIR desktop client (and the successor of Twhirl), which now also includes Facebook support, but this latest version is not yet publicly available (some details can be found here however).

More Facebook Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page

- 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence

- New Facebook Pages: A Guide for Social Media Marketers

- HOW TO: Survive the New, New Facebook

- 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook

Tags: facebook, Open Stream API, twitter

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Looking for a job? Consider creating your own. There are a number of social resources to help you connect with other entrepreneurs and get your business ideas off the ground.

Here are the top 10 social networks for entrepreneurs. Each helps entrepreneurs succeed by providing them with the guidance, tools and resources they need to setup their company and gain exposure.

Have another social site to add to this list? Tell us about it in the comments.

1. Entrepreneur Connect

Entrepreneur Media, the company that produces Entrepreneur Magazine, started a social network over a year ago specifically for entrepreneurs and small business owners called Entrepreneur Connect.   Like all social networks, you have the opportunity to create your own profile, explore the community, share ideas with other entrepreneurs and network. Unlike most social networks, this one frowns upon too much self-promotion and applauds idea sharing. 

You can use this network to connect to service providers, suppliers, advisers and colleagues.  Just like LinkedIn and Facebook, there are professional groups that you can join or create.  Another cool feature is that you’re able to start your own blog and possibly have it appear on the main page.  This is similar to what Fast Company has done with their website.

2. PartnerUp

PartnerUp is a social network for entrepreneurs who are searching for people and resources for business opportunities.  Anyone can join, but business partners, co-founders, executives and board members will get the most out of this one.  In this network, you can ask or offer advice, find commercial real estate and find service providers like accountants and marketers for your business. 

The big differentiator with this social network is the commercial real estate “MoveUpSM” program that serves entrepreneurs who have experienced a hard time trying to find office space for their business.  They also have a Resource Directory that allows small and mid-sized businesses to advertise their services.

3.  StartupNation

Most social networks neglect the content aspect that makes StartupNation so useful.  With articles, forums, blogs, on-demand seminars, and podcasts, entrepreneurs will be better prepared for their ventures and have the resources required to make better business decisions. 

There are a wide range of topics being discussed on StartupNation right now, including business planning, marketing and web-based business.  The site also offers a series of competitions, such as a dorm-based 20 contest and an elevator pitch competition. If you’re an entrepreneur or hope to become one, this site is definitely one you can’t miss out on.

4.  LinkedIn

It’s difficult to leave LinkedIn off of any social networking list because it’s so useful for anyone who’s either searching for a job, is trying to network with like-minded individuals, or building a company.  LinkedIn offers many resources for entrepreneurs, such as groups, including the very popular “On Startups” group that has over 54,000 members. 

Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn should brand themselves properly so they can attract the right kind of business opportunities, and perform searches to find service providers or partners.  As an entrepreneur, you should also be looking to participate in LinkedIn Answers, events and applications to spruce up your profile and become a valuable member to your community.

5. Biznik

This isn’t another LinkedIn clone.  Instead, Biznik brands itself as a social network that “doesn’t suck.”  The Biznik community is composed of freelancers, CEOs, and the self-employed.  Like the other networks, this is a place for you to share ideas, instead of posting your resume.  It is mandatory for all members to use their real names and provide real data, and Biznik editors actually review all profiles to ensure compliance with that policy.  There are three levels of membership, including basic, active ($10 a month for an enhanced profile) and supporting ($24 a month for increased visibility).

6.  Perfect Business

If you want to meet thousands of serious entrepreneurs, experts and investors from a variety of industries, then Perfect Business might be the perfect social network for you.  The type of people you’ll find are potential business partners, potential clients and advisers. Additionally, the site has leading business partners like Entrepreneur and Virgin Money.

From business networking to a video center where you can learn from successful entrepreneurs, a business plan builder and even an investor center, you’ll have most of the resources you need to create or regenerate your business. There is a free basic membership and a gold membership that costs $29.99 per month.

7.  Go BIG Network

The Go BIG Network embraces job seekers, in addition to funding sources, service providers and entrepreneurs.  In this social network, you post requests for help, which are then routed to other people in the network that can answer your questions or support you.  Members of this social network can search through profiles of other members, contact them or post a request (a classified ad) to talk about what they are looking for (such as a business partner).  The profiles on this network are targeted and specific so it’s easy to find an investor in a particular region.

8.  Cofoundr

The Cofoundr network is made up of idea makers, entrepreneurs, programmers, web designers, investors, freelancers and executives.  The primary purpose of joining this network is to start a new web venture.  Unlike most of the social networks already listed here, Cofoundr is a strictly private network, which means that you can’t view member profiles before you register for an account. 

Membership requires having a valid university or work email address, which means high schools students and younger aren’t allowed.  The first thing you have to do is sign up, then specify your abilities and the people you are trying to network with and finally, post your idea on the bulletin board or in the forum.

9.   The Funded

The Funded is an online community of entrepreneurs who research, rate and review funding sources.  Entrepreneurs can view and share terms sheets to assist each other in finding good investors, as well as discuss the inner workings of operating a business.  General benefits of this site include viewing facts, reviews and commentary on funding resources, and accessing RSS feeds of the most recent public comments by members. 

By joining the site, you have access to detailed fund profiles with specialty, reference investments, and investment criteria, in addition to accessing partner vCards that have full contact information of all partners at venture funds.  In order to get any value out of this social network, you pretty much have to become a member.

10.  Young Entrepreneur

If you’re young, entrepreneurial and socially active or just curious, then Young Entrepreneur is a great starting point for you.  This community appears as a discussion forum, with topics such as e-commerce, search engine optimization, marketing, IT & Internet, and franchising.  Aside from their main forum and threads, there is a popular blog and some great videos. 

More business resources from Mashable:

- 5 Startup Tips From the Founder of Gmail and FriendFeed
- Startup Hacks: 7 Ideas for Building Your Team
- Startup Hacks: An Early Stage Checklist

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, askhamdesigns

Amidst all the talk about data portability and net identity, all that end users want to know is: how can I use this, and is it any good? Now both Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect are open to everyone; we’ve looked into these two services to see what they offer and which one is easier to use.

So, what’s the main difference here?

In the simplest of terms, both Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect let you create applications on your website that allow your visitors to interact with the site and their friends by logging in with their Google, Facebook, or OpenID credentials.

The key difference between the two services is the fact that Facebook is one social network, while Google Friend Connect is open to any site, service or social network that uses OpenID for identification. For example, with Google Friend Connect your visitors can log in using their Gmail credentials, meaning that they don’t really have to be a part of any (strictly defined) social network at all. Facebook Connect, on the other hand, is useless to anyone who’s not a Facebook user.

Available widgets

Let’s say you want to add either Google Friend Connect or Facebook Connect functionality to your web site or a blog. What widgets are there at your disposal? Google calls their widgets “gadgets,” and there’s already a wide assortment at your disposal, with members of the community constantly adding more. They aren’t all Friend Connect ready, though; you can currently only choose from a small selection.

As far as Facebook Connect goes, you must create your own application, which is not that easy (see below). Logic tells me that there must be a gallery of apps you can readily add to your site, but I don’t see one; if I’m mistaken here, please correct me in the comments.

Ease of use

If you’re a web site owner, there’s a significant difference here. Both services require you to add some snippets of code to your site; however, adding Facebook Connect apps is a much more convoluted process. In short, the entire process is aimed at developers, not casual users, and it will scare away anyone without adequate technological knowledge.

This is a big, and important difference. Anyone can add Google Friend Connect to their site; as far as Facebook Connect goes, I’m convinced that many users will find the process too complicated.

On the user end of the equation, ease of use is nearly equal: a site which has either Google Friend Connect or Facebook Connect enabled will have a form that lets you login with your OpenID or Facebook credentials, and the usability from there depends on the individual widgets and applications.

Two way communication

There’s one other subtle difference between Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect: the latter is much more about two-way communication than the former. A Facebook Connect application can send your activities back to Facebook; Google Friend Connect has no such central place, although in theory it can have many (e.i. all the social networks that support OpenID).

Therefore, I reckon that in general, Facebook Connect will primarily be interesting to bigger sites who will want to engage Facebook’s huge audience. Google Friend Connect will also be used by smaller sites who’ll simply want to add a fun widget to their site.

User base

If you look at these two services from an identity perspective, deciding which is better can be tricky. Yes, Facebook is huge, but Gmail and all OpenID supporters put together are bigger. Will Facebookers be more willing to log in with their credentials into a third party site than Gmail users? It’s hard to say, but in general, my opinion is that FC and GFC are tied with this regard.

Conclusion

So, there you go: although seemingly very similar services, Google Friend Connect is (currently) aimed at a wider user base, while Facebook Connect is (currently) for developers only. There’s a difference in focus, too; Facebook Connect is more about bringing data back to Facebook, while Google Friend Connect, lacks a central place to bring back data to.

If you’ve got anything to add, or you’ve tried one of these two services and want to share your experience, we’d like to hear your comments!

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, bns124

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Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:

Facebook Blocks Google’s Friend Connect. There Goes the Open Web.
Plaxo Moves to Support Google Friend Connect
Google Friend Connect: Try it Now on Mashable
Google Wants To Be Your Universal Profile Too; Announces Friend Connect
Google Sings Its ABCs About Friend Connect
Friend Connect And The End Of The Fragmentation Era
Facebook Connect: The News is the News

Facebook Connect is now open for business, allowing any developer to let users login to their websites using their Facebook credentials. Additionally, other key Facebook features, like your friends list, can now be integrated into third-party applications, which can in turn send data back into Facebook and the News Feed.

If there were an OpenID for Dummies book, its publisher would be Facebook Connect, because for all intents and purposes, it’s the same thing, at least to 99.9% of end users who experience it. For an example of how it works, the new Citysearch beta, which launched a couple weeks ago, allows users to use their Facebook login to write reviews and leave comments. Those actions are then broadcast back to the Facebook News Feed.

That’s a big win for two obvious reasons: (1) you don’t need to register for a Citysearch account, provided you’re one of the 130 million people that now has Facebook, (2) Citysearch gets a ton of free exposure, as Facebook users who leave reviews and comments have those activities broadcast back to their mini-feed.

Now, OpenID works similarly – you can sign-in to third-party websites using credentials from popular services like Yahoo and AIM – but both as a user and a developer, the benefits aren’t as tangible as those being offered by Facebook Connect. The remaining advantage for OpenID is that it doesn’t tether users to one service – since so many companies are now identity providers, just about everyone already has an account somewhere they can use on sites that accept OpenID logins.

But, I don’t think that’s enough to hold back Facebook Connect from being a powerful force in identity management, and a must-add feature for websites with social features. It would seem that a lot of big websites already agree, as Facebook has signed on more than 100 launch partners, including CBS, CNET, CNN, Vimeo, and even My.BarackObama.com. And, according to Facebook, early testing of Connect shows a 50 percent increase in engagement on websites that have implemented it.

That’s not to say Facebook isn’t without competition – MySpace has already launched its own similar effort on a number of websites, while Google Friend Connect, likely not as a matter of coincidence, today opened up its doors for any developer to implement. But with its existing and growing lead in social networking, along with an approach that any end-user can understand, Facebook appears to have a big advantage.

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Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:

Facebook Connect vs Google Friend Connect: Fight!
Facebook Connect Launches with 24 Partners Including Digg and Six Apart
Facebook Connect: The News is the News
Google Friend Connect: Try it Now on Mashable
Facebook Counters MySpace; Will Let Users Port Profile Data
Netvibes Launches Facebook Widget, Challenges Lock-In
ClaimID Doesn’t Do It For Me

UPDATE: We have 500 Nostradamical invites for Mashable readers. Visit the site and use the code MASHABLE to get access.

Nostradamical, a UK startup that’s currently in private beta, is ironically a little late with its Ruby on Rails-powered, “crowdsourcing”-inspired predictions site.  And predicting its success depends on the site’s ability to plug into other audiences rapidly.

The short, lazy description: it’s “Digg for predictions.”  The long one, courtesy of the Nostradamical site:

- Use collective intelligence to predict future world events.

- Create your own events. Tag and publish your predictions.

- Create lists that group together predictions under one theme (e.g. My Oscar Predictions).

- Rise through 7 levels of status and gain fame as an ‘Oracle’ of the future. Promote your blog or website.

The essence of that: make a prediction, and watch good predictions rise up as other people vote on their likelihood.  Vote correctly and you earn cred.  

Wisdom of What Now?

Incidentally, this is fundamentally not the way the Wisdom of Crowds works. That theory says that the most accurate prediction is made when users vote independently, without having seen the votes of others.  A Digg-like system, as mentioned many times on Mashable before, creates a herd-like mentality where your opinion is influenced by the people who came before you.  

And Yet, Salvageable

Yes, it’s not novel and it’s not technically a Wisdom of Crowds app as the About page claims.  It has a silly name, too.  But, the Nostradamical team sure as heck knows how to build a Web app, and that’s half the battle.  Everything works, it looks good, and it’s fun to play around with.

The secret, I think, will be to plug into other ecosystems to gain a user-base…blog partnerships ala PollDaddy (a polling company that got a great deal of traction by working with blogs like Mashable), Twitter syndication, Facebook apps, an API and the rest.

The Likely Outcome

Alas, most startups don’t get enough runway to achieve that critical mass and figure out the revenue model later.  No, if Nostradamical is to survive, it’ll likely do so by foregoing the consumer market (or at least treating it as a loss leader) and end up building prediction markets for internal use at companies.

Don’t believe me? Go check up on this 2007 list of 20+ Prediction Markets…where are they now?

Editor’s Note: If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion in “The Startup Review” series, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: E.Factor

20-word Description: The fastest growing social network for entrepreneurs and investors that offers health insurance to its members.

100-word Pitch: With over 47,000 members in 3 short months, the niche social market is binding entrepreneurs and investors through a virtual platform, unparalleled by anything else. Launching July 1st, entrepreneurs will no longer have to worry about health insurance or a 401K plan as both will be offered to premium members. In addition expect to see new satellites popping up like the Cambridge University E.Factor site (http://cambridge.efactor.com), business lounges across the world, and bilingual homepages for overseas members.

The E.Factor is a virtual economy and a network comprised on one thing – growing businesses. By giving entrepreneurs social tools both online and offline, members can connect, promote, and find funding.

Mashable’s Take: When you think social networks, you might think megasites. Ones with dozens of millions of members. MySpace. Facebook. Bebo. Or perhaps mid-sized operations. Those with several million members. Or perhaps a few hundred thousand. Networks with five-figure userships, meanwhile, aren’t likely to gain very lasting recognition. At least not those built for your average Joe or Jane.

E.Factor knows this. That’s why it hasn’t been seeking ordinary folk to populate its servers. At least not people interested in run of the mill networking. Instead, it’s targeting a niche. A rather unique niche. The idea is to connect entrepreneurs with investors. Everything from simple communications to startup promotion and funding solicitations and so forth. None is supported by advertising. Instead, it’s built upon the site’s paid premium accounts.

Still, that’s not the most unusual part.

What’s most intriguing about E.Factor, after 3 months in action, and with a membership 47,000-strong, is it will soon offer users health insurance and 401(k) plans.

Granted, the structure of E.Factor isn’t the most most visually appealing to come about in the last half year or so. Pay it a visit and you’re not likely to think it elegant, either in layout or in color. But its external value isn’t likely of any concern to its users. Instead, the thousands of people involved in the experiment are what make E.Factor work. And evidently its makings work well enough for the company to pursue a tangible benefits-based system for paying members. (Note: The launches of these programs will occur in less than a week’s time, on July 1.)

In addition to these fairly momentous steps, E.Factor will be spending the next several months opening physical lounges for entrepreneurs across an international spectrum to complement its online services. First Amsterdam in July, followed by more than 100 others in places elsewhere.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

Disclosure: E.Factor is a past sponsor of Mashable events

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Mashable’s Exhibit Hall for Internet Week NY – Call for Sponsors
Exhibit Hall for Internet Week New York – Updates and Call for Sponsors
Internet Week New York Recap
Internet Week NY – Mashable’s Exhibit Hall and Party is Friday Night
Mashable’s Exhibit Hall for Internet Week New York
Join Mashable at Internet Week New York

Why it might be a killer

There are already a fair number of members and this site might just succeed in matching up a few people and creating the next killer startup!

In their own words

“Whether you’re looking for a partner, a job, or an employee, Mac Yenta is the place to find them. The people on this site are the who’s who in indie Mac development. There’s a lot of talent out there — help yourself to it.”

What it does

With a slogan of “socializing for nerds”, MacYenta probably won’t appeal to everyone but it just might become a key portal for independent Mac programmers and designers looking to meet each other, collaborate together, or find work. According to MacYenta, a yenta is another term for a matchmaker; or someone who is generally good at socializing and matching up people of similar interests. Mac developers and programmers can sign up and create their own profile in which they can do all the usual stuff like uploading a photo, and they can also state what kinds of projects they are interested in and what skills they have. Profiles can be easily searched with a variety of filters and categories making it very easy to find the right person for whatever the job.

Some questions

Perhaps a good addition to the site would be the ability to vote for people who you have worked with or who did a good job for you?

Updates

 » original news

Editor’s Note: If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion in “The Startup Review” series, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Fashionspace.com

20-word Pitch: Fashionspace.com is a “social-trading” site allowing members to set up personalised profiles and shops to buy, sell or swap independently designed, vintage or 2nd hand fashion.

CEO’s 100-word Description: Fashionspace.com was conceived to give emerging creative talent a free platform to promote themselves, network and to distribute their products online. However, the site can be used to find vintage gems, swap unwanted gifts, sell your second-hand fashion or as a professional platform to sell your latest collection – like an online Portobello high street. Our objective is to become the largest peer-to-peer fashion sales platform on the web – when someone asks the question, “Where should I sell my clothes online?” The answer should be: Fashionspace.com.

Mashable’s Take: If fashion is your love and devotion, and you’re all about original material – or even unique second-hand finds, Fashionspace may just turn out to be your favorite new network. Connect with couturists, blog your needlework, swap stuff that sits in your closet with that of others, or buy and sell new and used items which you and fellow site members have designed and produced. You can do it all in one place. Clothing, jewelry, one-of-a-kind accessories. You name it, Fashionspace will showcase it.

Though it is a young thing, Fashionspace looks quite refined. Based in London, the site offers most all of the features one would expect to need to market and maintain a profile of one’s designs. The layout of the storefront is appealing, and the supply of product categories is quite large, giving the user an impression of substance. For a shopping network, content is certainly crucial.

As for what lives within the storefront, you can shop men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, plus things like watches, bags, and hats. If that weren’t enough, magazines, books, art, and pet clothing are part of the mix as well – just in case your canine wants to sport a sweater not of mainstream making.

Of course, there’s a good chance that you’re not alone in your appreciating for attire of various sorts. You’ve likely got your set of likeminded friends that you converse with quite regularly. If so, invite them to the network, it’s easy to do, and you can quickly build bridges with friends local and friends far off. And in the fashion world, the more connections the better, right?

There are also sections on Fashionspace reserved for fashion news and events. Though the news page doesn’t appear particularly interesting, the list of events can help users find festivals, shows, and sales without much trouble. All is presented in chronological order, and spans an international scene. (Much of what is displayed occurs in the UK, the region from which Fashionspace emerged, though a few US- and Germany-based events are noted.)

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

For those of you who have been struggling to understand what Google’s latest service, Friend Connect, really is, and how it relates to the competitors, I’ve found a simple answer: it’s MyBlogLog on a global scale.

MyBlogLog is a great little service (later acquired by Yahoo) with a simple idea: give a name and a face to your website’s visitors. In a way, it takes your visitors and creates a social network out of them. Unfortunately, I think that Google’s Friend Connect has just rendered them obsolete by doing the opposite, as it brought all social networks to your website’s visitors. MyBlogLog has a relatively big community – 140,000 registered members is the latest number I’ve seen – but it’s not as big as Facebook. Or MySpace. Or LinkedIn. And it’s definitely not as big as all those sites put together.

The problem with MyBlogLog is that its community consists mostly of bloggers. Most bloggers, however, are also members of larger social networks, and now that Friend Connect enables them to tap into all those socnets, without any programming knowledge, MyBlogLog isn’t really necessary anymore. The only thing it can really do is join the party.

John McCrea, vice president of marketing at Plaxo, provides a good quote on Friend Connect:

“Instead of widgetizing apps and bolting them on to some corporation’s proprietary social graph, why not widgetize the social graph and socially enable any Web site or Web page?”

The implication of this is that widgetizing, outside of bigger, meta-networks like OpenSocial, might be coming to an end. What good is a widget which only taps into one service or network? Take a look at the current state of affairs:

Each arrow represents a widget which moves data back and forth between a single website and a bigger network. It’s a bit messy, because you need a lot of widgets to cover all bases. Now, with one big sweep of hand, Google introduces the following situation:

Sure, you can go around the big Friend Connect cloud, but chances are you’re going to be left behind. Of course, Friend Connect is just one implementation of a bigger framework; a sign of times to come, if you will.

OpenSocial marks the end of the fragmentation era. Friend Connect is the first big application of OpenSocial, immediately showing its strength: suddenly, it’s pointless to create a website widget that’s dependent only on one service when Friend Connect lets you tap into all of them at once. As new frameworks that connect more fragmented networks emerge, we will see less and less isolated applications. The standards are still in the making, though. Facebook, MySpace and Google all know this, and they’re all trying to grab a big chunk of the pie now while it’s still hot. It will be interesting to see how the cookie crumbles in the end.

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Related Articles at Mashable! – The Social Networking Blog:

Google Wants To Be Your Universal Profile Too; Announces Friend Connect
FriendFeed Brings Twitter Back
Petition to Bring Back Facebook’s “Skip This Step”
Martha Stewart Is Your Friend… And It’s A ‘Good Thing’
Podcast: Paul and Bret Talk of FriendFeed’s API
FabFemme Launches Professional Network for Gay Women
Sony Connect Music Service Shutting Down

I’ve accidentally stumbled into several music-related mashups today, and I thought I might share them with you. The thing is, sometimes I’m just into chilling with my favorite tunes, but sometimes I’m in research mode, and I want to find as much as I can about whatever I’m listening to. The six mashups described below are perfect for this purpose.

WikiFM – not the most beautiful site to look at (let’s be honest here, it’s ugly), but I love it. The premise is very simple: divide the page into two frames, load a Last.FM player in one and show the related Wikipedia page in the other, according to whatever is playing at the moment. I’ve found this one an hour ago and I’m still having fun with it, hopefully it doesn’t lead into another internet addiction, because I have more than enough of those. You can search by artists, tag, user name, group; alternatively you can simply enter a Last.FM URL. I can already see a beautiful, black background, AIR-based music player based on the idea…I’m dreaming, right? BTW, for completeness’ sake, I need to mention that Last.FM is by itself a fantastic place to read about music while you’re listening to it, due to their detailed info pages for each artist. But you already know this.

MusicMesh – this is actually a solid Pandora clone, mashup-style: search for an artist, and get a tree of related artists; you can listen to music if MusicMesh can find a video for a particular track on YouTube, which doesn’t always work too great. But, you can also read user reviews, Wikipedia info, or even buy music on Amazon. Pity the design is such that everything is cramped into small boxes, which severely diminishes the usefulness of this otherwise solid site.

PitchforkMedia + Rhapsody – are you a fan of legendary indie (I know everyone hates that label) music review site PitchforkMedia? This uglyish site lets you browse the latest reviews (scores are included), and then hear the albums on Rhapsody. Not a bad way to quickly hear for yourself what the hell are those reviewers on Pitchfork are yabbering about.

FoxyTunes Planet – this great looking site combines many different data sources to bring you a very complete set of info about an artist. You get a biography, related news and info (from Yahoo search), related artists (from Last.FM), lyrics (from Yahoo Music) and the option to buy the albums from Amazon. The only thing I don’t get is why the music player opens in a popup; I’d prefer – as I think many of you would – to be inside the page.

Musiic – a very thorough music search site with all conceivable information thrown in, including tracks from Last.FM, YouTube videos, images from several different sites, related blog posts, Wikipedia entries and more. Unfortunately, the design of the site leaves a lot to be desired.

Elbo.ws – a bit confusing at first, this site gathers information about artists from various blogs. This usually results in a lot of information not directly related to the artist in question, but it’s great for learning new things. The layout is not too shabby either, once you get used to it. As for actually listening to music, you can check out the related videos for each artist, and many included blog posts carry embedded MP3 files, often of rare/live/unreleased tracks. Great tool for the true music connoisseur.

ShareThis

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iLike Worth $50M, TicketMaster Buys 25%
Last.fm Partners with Sony BMG
Facebook Music?
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DRM Officially Dead. Sony BMG Drops It.