Yogi Land

In less than two days, Apple’s Ping music social network has surpassed the 1 million user milestone.

Apple introduced Ping as the centerpiece of iTunes 10 at its music event earlier this week. It is a music-centric social network where users can follow updates from both their friends and their favorite music artists. It includes custom song and album charts, a news feed and 17,000+ concert listings.

Ping has had a rocky road since its launch late on Wednesday. Apple’s social network has been hit with comment spam and international availability issues. The company’s in up-and-down talks with Facebook over integrations and API use. It’s also received lackluster reviews from the media.

However, that hasn’t stopped droves of people from trying out the iTunes-based social network. Apple says that 1/3 of users that have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping.

Should we be surprised, though? More than 160 million people have iTunes, and curiosity is always at a high after an Apple event. However, while Ping may have 1 million registered users, that doesn’t mean they’ll still be using the social network three months from now. That is the numbers we’ll be interested in, because it is what will determine the fate of Ping as a service.

More About: apple, itunes, music, Ping, social networking

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Hurricane Earl is expected to wreak some havoc on the East Coast this Labor Day weekend. According to the the National Hurricane Center, Earl is expected “pass near the North Carolina outer banks tonight [Thursday]… and approach southeastern New England Friday night.”

President Obama has declared a state of emergency for North Carolina, and FEMA has deployed teams to North Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.

Whether you live near the National Hurricane Center’s official “Forecast Cone” or you’re one of the 34.4 million people who planned a trip for this weekend, you’ll want to keep an eye on Earl. Here are some resources to kickstart your tracking:

---

Government Resources

---

The National Weather Service

Get your weather warnings and advisories right from the source on top of a color-coded map. You can also use the site to check in on where Earl is likely to hit and whether or not hurricane force winds are probable in your area.

NOAA’s nowCOAST

Make a customized, real-time map using NOAA data. Decide what location, information, and time you’d like to view and what data layers you’d like to activate, and nowCOAST will make a map for your request. This is a great tool for people who actually know something about weather, but it can leave the beginner hurricane tracker a bit confused.

NASA Earth Science Office

See what the hurricane looks like from outer space by taking a look at the latest satellite pictures direct from NASA’s Earth Science Office. The site offers a number of different satellite views, include infrared and water vapor readings.

---

Weather Media Resources

---

MyFoxHurricane.com

Very helpful for connecting with other hurricane tracking nerds, this dedicated hurricane website from MyFoxTampaBay and the FOX Network hosts a live chat in addition to its other hurricane resources. Interesting maps include the hurricane’s predicted path map, the wave height near the storm and a radar map that zooms in on the Outer Banks.

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel’s Hurricane Central allows you to view where Hurricane Earl has been and where it’s projected to go. There are also separate maps for hurricane advisories, tropical storm advisories, wind speeds and wave heights; the site also has satellite maps for specific regions. The maps aren’t as flashy as some of the other sites on this list, but they are very easy to read and understand.

AccuWeather.com

If you want to see what Hurricane Earl looks like – and we’re not talking radar – watch this footage taken from directly above the eye of the storm. These brave NASA pilots apparently let an AccuWeather videographer on board. Hopefully this is as close to Earl as you will get.

The site’s frequent video coverage of Hurricane Earl is also a great resource.

---

Google Maps Mashups

---

Ibiseye

Ibiseye puts the storm’s history, projected path and at-risk areas on one Google map. It’s especially useful for finding at what time and with what intensity the storm is expected to reach a specific point. A graphical synopsis of the storm’s winds, pressure and wind field is also available.

StormAdvisory

Another Google Maps-based resource, StormAdvisory plots Hurricane Earl’s actual path and wind speeds as well as its projected path and wind speeds.

Weather Underground

The tropical weather section of Weather Underground includes radar, satellite, wind and forecast maps. The stand-out feature, however, is the site’s trademarked “Wundermap,” on which you can choose layers of information to display.

---

Stormpulse: A Hurricane Tracking Dashboard

---

Stormpulse is all you need to track Hurricane Earl’s vital stats. The dashboard displays every the essential detail, including current category, wind speed and movement, on one screen. You can switch the map to radar or satellite and select a point on the map to calculate its distance from the hurricane.

---

Mobile Resources

---

• The Weather Channel App for iPhone or BlackBerry

  The free version of the Weather Channel’s app for both iPhone and BlackBerry will alert you to weather advisories in your area and check in on the current forecast. The iPhone version comes with an updated local video forecast as well. If you want more from your weather source, a $3.99 iPhone version of the app comes with access to an entire video center and a database of beach condition reports. The Weather Channel also claims this is the only weather app with animated future radar.

• Hurricane iPhone App

  Anything a storm tracker could want: animated satellite and radar, computer models, NHC bulletins, forecasts, your distance from each forecast point and all the vital stats (including wind speed, direction and pressure). You can keep this $1.99 app on your phone after Earl has passed for the latest updates from government hurricane centers.

• Hurricane Wallpaper Android App

  Download this $0.99 Android app, and you’ll never be without your weather map. You can keep the current National Hurricane Center’s Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity image up on your phone as your wallpaper.

• MyFoxHurricane iPhone App

  The resources of MyFoxHurricane.com (as discussed earlier in this post) in a $3.99 iPhone app. Get access to breaking news and videocasts from the site as well as radar and satellite images. You can also look at past hurricanes in your area to see how Earl compares.

• Hurricane Hound Android App

  This Android app shows the storm’s current position, projected storm track and storm warnings on a Google map. It also lets you know how far away you are from the storm at any given moment. And it’s free, which we like.

• AccuWeather.com iPhone App

  Not fancy but still free, AccuWeather.com’s iPhone app will alert you to weather advisories in your zip code. Aside from accessing the usual web forecast, you can also access video forecasts for your area.

• Hurricane Central Web App

  Tired of downloading apps? Hurricane Central is a bare-bones mobile site for hurricane information. It pulls maps, advisories and other hurricane announcements from the National Hurricane Center.

---

Twitter Resources

---

• @VisitNC: The official tourism site for North Carolina, the state which is predicted to take the brunt of the blow, is tweeting travel conditions and beach closings as well as posing some interesting questions, such as, “What message in the sand would you write for Hurricane #Earl?” It’s good to see them keeping a sense of humor.
• @CNNweather: Breaking news from CNN, including new weather warnings and forecasts.
• @breakingweather: AccuWeather.com’s Twitter feed for breaking news (including hurricanes).
• @TWCBreaking: If you prefer the Weather Channel to AccuWeather, this is its very similar breaking news Twitter feed.
• @MyFoxHurricane: Twitter resource from Fox’s dedicated hurricane website (mentioned above).
• @hurricanes: The Science News Blog’s hurricane coverage, which focuses on the Atlantic region.
• @wunderground: Severe weather warnings and updates from Weather Underground.
• @stormpulse: Frequent storm updates and advisories on tropical storms and hurricanes.
• @NASAHurricane: NASA is equipped like no other organization to cover hurricanes (e.g., they’re able to fly directly into the eye of a hurricane). Follow this feed so you don’t miss their updates.
• @hurricanetrack: Let someone else track the hurricane in person. Get live video streams from HurricaneTrack.com.

---

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

---

- 5 Fun FarmVille Accessories
- Facebook Privacy: 6 Years of Controversy
- A Brief History of Digg
- 20 Cool Twitter Accounts for Daily Fun and Inspiration
- 7 Cool Chrome Extensions for Twitter

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, EricHood

More About: accuweather.com, hurricane, Hurricane Earl, hurricane tracking apps, ibiseye, mobile apps, myfoxhurricane, NASA, NHC, stormadvisory, stormpulse, the weather channel, tracking apps, twitter, weather underground

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

We’ve all done it — surfed on over to the book of faces, our hearts racing and pupils dilating with excitement, let our cursors linger over those oh-so-powerful words, “Remove From Friends,” and clicked away with the maniacal glee of a serial killer.

Still, there aren’t too many among us who have the skill, nay, the expertise to cut ties without cutting deep.

At this point, some of you may be reminiscing about the sepia-tinged past, those glory days when, if you didn’t want to chill with Lucy “I Eat Paste” Smith anymore, all you had to do was ghost out of her life, letting the last tendrils of your friendship dissolve into the ether like wisps of smoke.

Well, those days are as dead as Lucy’s creepy gray front teeth. Now, every time someone exits your life, you have to decide whether to keep them in your Facebook stream or cut the lifeline.

“Friends and acquaintances come and go as we move through life stages and find the need for keeping some friends and losing others,” says Dr. Larry Rosen, author of Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. “If you had no way to unfriend someone, then this would lose the authenticity of having a relationship.”

You hear that? Unfriending is practically doctor-approved. Still, how do you know when and how to take the pal-eviscerating plunge? Read on for our tips on handling unfriending situations.

And so begins my Netiquette column — which I write with my Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz — this week over at CNN.

Check out the column at CNN.com >>

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, A1Stock

---

Reviews: Facebook, iStockphoto

More About: cnn, facebook, netiquette, social media, Stuff Hipsters Hate

Serving up search results based on what your friends clicked: It’s been a hot topic lately, and one that Facebook has seen fit to claim as its own.

The social networking goliath has just won a patent covering a certain type of search algorithm, one that is largely based on the interests and clicks of a user’s friends and friends-of-friends.

Specifically, the patent is for “ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation.”

The patent continues, “Search results, including sponsored links and algorithmic search results, are generated in response to a query and are marked based on frequency of clicks on the search results by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query. The markers are visual tags and comprise either a text string or an image.”

The listed inventors are Chris Lunt, Nicholas Galbreath and Jeff Winner. The patent application was filed almost six years ago; we’re uncertain how much this technology plays into Facebook’s current business and search strategies. Still, the patent calls into question whether users click — or buy, or watch, or behave in other ways — like their friends and peers do.

What we do know is that Facebook search has been a priority for the company since its redesign earlier this year. At that time, the search bar on the site was given a prominent new position, and several under-the-hood upgrades rounded out the Facebook search experience.

We’ve also seen a lot of sidebar ads and recommendations lately centering around what a user’s friends like within the site. All in all, the patent seems to line up with Facebook’s general mission to explore (and profit from) the synapses and connections within a social network.

What do you think of this patent? Do you suppose we’ll see any major changes to Facebook search or any business moves based on it?

More About: facebook, patent, Search

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Skype has formally announced its newest product for business users, Skype Connect.

Skype Connect, formally Skype SIP, is Skype’s play at the IP-enabled PBX and Unified Communications (UC) market. With Skype Connect, businesses can now integrate the service into their existing PBX systems.

In addition to making outgoing calls at Skype rates from desktop phones, Skype Connect also lets businesses receive phone calls from other Skype users, landline or mobile phones, or from other phones on the corporate PBX. Also, Skype Connect can be configured to route calls to mobile numbers.

This video gives an overview of just what Skype Connect does:

Skype is one of the most visible players in the consumer VoIP space, but it has a much smaller presence in the business world.

Skype first launched its Skype Connect Beta in March 2009, and according to its business blog now has more than 2,400 global customers. That’s not a bad start, but it pales when compared to some of the bigger players in this field.

Skype also faces stiff competition, not just from companies like Cisco — which has its own IP-PBX offerings — but from startups in the same space, including Bandwidth.com. Bandwidth.com offers SIP Trunking for businesses that want a cost-effective, in-house IP-PBX, and its Phonebooth Free and Phonebooth OnDemand products directly target SMBs.

Skype’s advantage, of course, is going to be that it has brand recognition with new customers. For small businesses that are transitioning to a phone system, IP or otherwise, for the first time, the Skype brand should have its own set of advantages.

Likewise, while other hosted IP-PBX systems have click-to-talk systems like Skype’s own interface (meaning users can initiate a phone call from a button on the Internet), Skype is a ubiquitous part of many consumer and business desktops.

Skype’s disadvantage, however, is that because it has been such a consumer-centric service, it’s unproven in the business support and infrastructure arena. Skype offers a new dedicated customer support option for Skype Connect users, but it’s going to also off-load some of its support to channel partners and VARs. Depending on the business, this may not be ideal.

Also, we find ourselves confused about Skype Connect’s pricing plan. Rather than bundling together plans with minute buckets or extensions, Skype is charging by the minute and by what it calls “channels.”

Incoming calls are free, and outgoing calls are charged according to Skype’s standard rates of 2.1 cents per minute. Users will also need to pay $6.95 a month per channel. A channel is the number of concurrent calls you want to make or receive at once. So if you want to have five different extensions that can all be in use at the same time, you’ll pay $34.75.

We really think it would be in Skype’s best interest to create some unified or bundled pricing plans for its business offerings, if only to make comparison shopping easier.

What do you think of Skype’s formal entrance into the corporate VoIP space? Let us know in the comments.

---

Reviews: Internet, Skype

More About: ip-pbx, pbx, phonebooth, Skype, skype connect, voip

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Google is reportedly in advanced negotiations with major Hollywood movie studios to launch a streaming, pay-per-view movie rental site by the end of 2010.

The site would be either part of or connected to YouTube, and Google would use its massive search and video empires to direct new users to the new service, helping it stand toe-to-toe with Apple and other competitors in the space.

According to anonymous sources cited by The Financial Times, including an executive with knowledge of the deal, talks have been taking place for months, but they’ve picked up recently. The big reveal here is not the fact that Google wants to launch such a service — we’ve known that for a long time — but the reports that studios are increasingly enthusiastic, so much so that the service is expected to go live by year’s end.

Many enthusiasts and bloggers believe that Apple will release a new version of the Apple TV platform at an event later this week, so the pressure is on Google to show the world what it’s planning as soon as possible. The Financial Times story says that Google’s service will be available first in the United States, but that other countries will be added later.

It also says that the rentals will cost $5 — significantly more than the rentals at iTunes or Amazon Video on Demand. We find that number hard to believe, to be honest. Google is not likely to price its service too highly in comparison to competitors, which typically charge between two and four dollars for a rental.

---

Building on What’s Already There

---

Google actually began testing out video rentals at YouTube months ago. Its first public test involved a handful of independent films from the Sundance Film Festival. Reports were that the test was not a financial success, but Google nevertheless expanded its service to include a much larger and more mainstream base of titles. It still was not a real competitor to iTunes or Amazon Video on Demand.

Those early rollouts may have been for testing purposes, though, and Google didn’t really sell them with search links and YouTube promotions like The Financial Times describes. One of the executives The Financial Times spoke with said, “They’ve talked about how many people they could steer to this . . . it’s a huge number.”

That’s probably going to be true so long as Google executes its search promotions in the right way, and if it has attractive content, service and prices.

---

Reviews: Google, YouTube, iTunes

More About: a la carte, apple, Apple TV, Film, Google, Hollywood, itv, Movies, pay per view, ppv, studios, video, video on demand, vod, youtube

For more Web Video coverage:

• Follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Web Video channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Around this time yesterday, Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh publicly offered on Twitter to buy Reddit from publishing company Condé Nast. Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian responded in a blog post this morning suggesting that all the relevant parties get together and talk… over cheeseburgers.

Ohanian, who is no longer directly involved in managing Reddit on a daily basis, actually teased in his blog post’s title that he would respond using only LOLcats (for which Huh’s Cheezburger Network is famous), but he didn’t make good on that promise. Instead, he explained how Reddit’s ads are restricted to preserve a clean user experience, and how that poses “a difficult monetization problem that hasn’t yet been solved.”

You might remember that Reddit called on its users to contribute money in exchange for “gold” memberships when the site struggled to meet the revenue goals set by Condé Nast. Huh offered to give Reddit “more resources and less corporate interference” than Condé Nast.

As open as Ohanian seemed to Huh’s wooing, he wasn’t optimistic about the possibility of Reddit switching hands. “Team reddit needs help, but I wouldn’t expect anyone to call you, Ben,” he blogged. “In fact, I’d be very surprised if reddit were sold.”

Despite his concerns, Ohanian suggested a dialogue between Huh and Reddit’s caretakers: “Considering all that you’ve done with the Cheezburger empire, Ben, I think it’s at least worth dropping a note to Chris Slowe & the team to chat over some… uh… cheeseburgers?”

Chances are nothing would come of such a meeting — apparently Huh has already made offers privately with no luck — but Ohanian seems to agree that Reddit isn’t quite at home with Condé Nast.

[via The Next Web]

---

Reviews: reddit.com

More About: acquisition, alexis ohanian, Ben Huh, cheezburger network, conde nast, reddit, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

While checking into a Facebook Places location recently, one Mashable reader noticed a new tab: Photo Memories.

We’ve been unable to duplicate the same tab ourselves, which means Facebook may be testing this feature with a small number of users first before committing to a larger roll-out. But this offering is consistent with how Facebook has presented its newest feature.

At its launch, Facebook’s Vice President of Product, Chris Cox, described Places as a digital repository for all your location-based memories. He described a couple’s children being able to use Facebook Places data to pinpoint the spot of their parents’ first kiss, for example. But a large part of how we store our memories on Facebook and on the larger web is via images and photographs. Imagine not only being able to get textual clues about that first kiss but to also see images of your parents’ first date.

We can imagine that tagging images with a given location or uploading images of a specific location to that location’s Places page would fit nicely into how Facebook has positioned Places so far.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for confirmation that this feature is, in fact, being tested and may come to all users soon; we’ll update you as soon as we hear back from the company.

Photo Memories would further pit the social networking giant against startups such as Brightkite, which offers a core feature of uploading images about places. And a Facebook-driven, Places-based photo feature would also one-up startup such as Foursquare, which has yet to include a multimedia facet in its checkin process.

While we’re sure that Facebook will continue to add core features over its Places location framework, we’re equally certain that the company will leave many other features — including potentially money-making ones such as social gaming — to third-party developers.

Are you seeing the “Photo Memories” section appearing in Facebook’s Places pages yet? Let us know in the comments what you think of the feature, and feel free to send us screenshots if you see any new ways the images are being integrated with location technologies.

[hat tip: Rob Gonda]

More About: facebook, Facebook Places, Photos, places

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Y Combinator, an investment firm for early stage startups, will be upgrading its relationship status with Facebook today, as Facebook has just announced a partnership with the venture company.

The Facebook-Y Combinator partnership is designed to be mutually beneficial for both companies.

Y Combinator has a reputation for producing top notch startups that go on to attract high profile investors, including Justin.tv, Reddit, Scribd and Dropbox. Under the new partnership, Facebook will gain insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, an advantage that will help it build better social products and cherry pick the best startups before competitors like Google have a chance.

On the flip side, Facebook will provide Y Combinator startups with a bevy of resources including priority access to Facebook Credits and other beta features, product and design support, and technical assistance for those interested in building social products or Facebook applications.

Y Combinator will use its winter 2011 class to seek out social startups looking to benefit from the Facebook partnership.

“In the near future, we think it will be hard to imagine a web experience that is not personalized. Startups that can build in these interactions from the beginning — not simply add them to existing products — will be the examples of transformative social experiences others will follow,” said Facebook Platform lead Carl Sjogreen.

The strategic initiative is an interesting maneuver by Facebook and one that’s designed to help the behemoth social network stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social technologies.

More About: facebook, partnership, startup incubators, y combinator

For more Business coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

When a loved one passes away, friends and family often memorialize him or her, usually in the form of a funeral or service. Online though, it’s an undefined frontier. Friends often post on the Facebook walls of the deceased, while Twitter just recently addressed this issue.

Facebook and Twitter aren’t sufficient to truly honor the memory of a friend or family member, though. Enter 1000Memories, a new YCombinator-funded startup that aims to solve this problem by creating a central location where friends and family can share their pictures, stories and memories.

Memorial pages start out with a full-sized photo of the departed; it’s an emotional and powerful introduction to a 1000Memories page. Each page is divided into five parts: Friends & Family, Photos, Stories, Projects and Guestbook. Most of these pieces are self-explanatory, but they all have a focus on sharing memories about loved ones, whether that’s a story about the person or an old photo album.

One of the more interesting aspects of 1000Memories is the “Projects” section. Essentially it’s a page for raising money for a favored foundation or charity. It integrates with WePay for easy donations.

Memorial pages are relatively simple to set up as well. You can sign up or connect via Facebook to get started. 1000Memories then takes you step by step through the process of creating and managing a page.

While 1000Memories could use more features (we’d love to add video and audio), the site is off to a good start addressing a very real problem. It utilizes the sharing and collaborative aspects of the web and puts them to use for honoring the departed.

Would you use an app like 1000Memories to honor a departed friend or family member? Let us know in the comments.

---

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

More About: 1000Memories, startup, ycombinator