Joost Invitation giving-out

• Joost now Gives Users Unlimited Invites,so now I have lots of Invitations. If you want a Invitation,leave your Email here,I’ll send you one as soon as possible.

Three music video search tools

• With this morning's news of Last.fm launching a video service, we thought it would be worth mentioning a few resources that are out there for finding free music videos.
• MusicTonic is a very slick search tool that mashes up various pieces of artist information like photos, album art, news stories, and a video playlist. It ties into a few online services like Flickr, YouTube, Last.fm, and MyStrands, among others. It's a lot like Foxytunes Planet, which we looked at in January, although there's no integration with any jukebox players.
• Middio is a simplified music-video search engine that pulls its results from YouTube videos. You can watch any video without leaving the search results, and it's similar in appearance to Google's video search. Middio's results aren't nearly as precise or complete as you might expect, although the service is getting its videos from content provider channels on YouTube. In other words, you're less likely to find videos of teenagers lip syncing the song you're looking for.
• iLike is another music recommendation service. In addition to grabbing 30-second music previews, it will also use Google's Video search to pull up related videos to whatever song you're listening to. While you could achieve similar search results just by using Google, it's an easier way listen and explore.
• Related: MogTV, which launched in March [coverage here], uses Mog's recommendation tool to scan your computer's music library and serve up YouTube music videos it thinks you might like.
• Have any other services you use, or would recommend? Let us know in the TalkBack.
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Five Alternatives to Search without Google or Yahoo

• Everybody has their favorite way to search, whether it’s Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.  I think I’ve been programmed to search Google, at least that’s what my fingers tend to automatically type when I need to do a search. While Yahoo and Google are great ways to search, there are alternatives that may suit you better for certain searches.  Below you’ll find five alternatives that you can try out in place of the search that you regularly use.
• Rollyo
• Rollyo stands for “Roll Your own Search Engine.”  It allows you to create and publish your own search engine giving you a customized search experience that includes only the sites and categories that you want included.  It’s supposed to help reduce the amount of irrelevant search results that you receive.
• For Firefox fans, you can add any Searchroll (a compilation of sources to search) right to your Firefox searchbar.
• NetTrekker
• This one is designed with the kids in mind. Kids are becoming tech-savvy at a young age, and this search is the perfect collaboration of age appropriate material. They have a whole line of search products just for schools and children.
• Sometimes you come across web services that aren’t free, as is the case with NetTrekker. But sometimes, it’s also worth that cost.
• Draze
• This one isn’t taking you away from Google or Yahoo, instead it’s comparing the results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN all in one search. It’s like Dogpile except it doesn’t include searches from Ask.com.
• Each of those services return different results, so it’s nice to get the combination of results that Draze offers. When you perform a search, it will let you know where the item ranked for each of the three search sites.
• Kosmix
• Kosmix is in the very early stages of development, and because they’re a topical search, they only have few select categories for now.
• The categories that they offer include health, video games, finance, travel, US politics, and Autos. If you’re searching for something that would fit under any one of those categories, give it a try.
• I did a search on “Iraq War” under the politics section, and it pulled up a page with the search results, news, blogs on the topics, and they also offered suggestions for refining the search. At the top they included a snippet from the Wikipedia page on the topic.
• ChaCha
• ChaCha is probably one of the more original, unique ideas I’ve come across in terms of a search engine. Their focus is to provide you great results using professionals.  You’ll get a guide (this is free) who will provide you results that match your specifications.
• You can perform automated searches, but if you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, try clicking on “Chat Live with a Guide” and see if they can do better. This too is in beta.
• Source: FoxNews.com

The Easiest Way to get your Joost Invites Yet!

• Joost invites have been a hot commodity lately, but the problem until recently was that in order to get an invite, someone with an account had to send you one of their limited invites. We’ve given away all of our invites, and several readers offered their invites up as well. Joost switched from limited invites to unlimited which made it easier, but now there’s an even easier way of getting a Joost invite.
• GigaOM  has teamed up with Joost, and now there’s a page set up that anyone can go to. You just enter in your name and email address, and you’ll receive an invite (click here to get your invite). It really can’t get any easier.
• Joost went live on May 1st, but it wasn’t smooth sailing as they expected it would be. On the Joost blog, they had a post titled “A little red-faced” and they went on to explain that the demand was high, which is great, but their system was struggling with it. Perhaps they should have extended the private beta longer before jumping the gun?
• One of the biggest complaints so far besides the problems experienced with the public launch is the lack of content. Joost continues to add more, and hopefully they’ll get to a point where the quality of the content and the selection are top-notch. Recently two more partnerships were created which will add additional channels to the list.
• On Monday, Joost and video site Heavy announced a partnership. Heavy is popular with the younger male crowd, and the programming includes Heavy Animation, Heavy Comedy and Heavy Gurls. Along with Heavy, Warner Brothers just joined Joost as well. The list keeps getting longer, and it can only mean better content and selection for users.

Broken iPod? Useless iPod? Get $$ for it!

• Maybe you jumped on the bandwagon and purchased an iPod, only to find that you didn’t use it a few months later?  Maybe you’ve dropped your iPod just as many times as your cell phone, but your iPod didn’t survive?  Whatever your reason is, there’s a site that doesn’t mind whether it’s broken, or ya just don’t want it anymore.  They’ll give you cash for your iPod!
• The site is BuyMyBrokeniPod.com, and all you have to do is enter in all of the information regarding the iPod, whether it’s a Nano, Video, 3rd generation, etc. Then enter in the condition, and whether or not you have the USB cable, charger, or box. From there you’ll get your quote on how much they’ll pay you for your iPod. You ship it to them via 1st class USPS mail, and upon delivery you’ll get your payment.
• So for example, I’ve got a 4th generation 20GB iPod in 100% working order, it’s in OK condition, and it includes the USB cord and the charger.  I’d get $48 bucks back, and if it wasn’t working at all and I didn’t know why, I’d still get $18 back! If you have some idea what’s wrong with it, the value will probably go up. For example, if it had a cracked screen the value would go up to $21. Not bad if your iPod is sitting there broken, or collecting dust.
• If you’re planning on purchasing another iPod, another alternative is the Apple Recycling Program that they offer at US Retail stores. Whether it’s working or not, you can drop off your iPod and receive a 10 percent discount towards the purchase of a new iPod. Not a bad deal.

My first and second impressions of Zipcar

• Check out my video review of Zipcar below (RSS you just gots to clickthru!). While I have not actually used one of the Zipcars yet, my review is of the web site and my first impressions as a customer. I look forward to using a car in the near future and reporting back on that experience.
• The key points from my video:
• The pre-sales web site attempts to make you feel warm and fuzzy - they do a good job of this
• The card pick-up woman was a nasty, rude b**** and ruined my warm and fuzzy
• Renting a car on the weekend seems near impossible (except if you book 2 weeks in advance)
• Renting a car during the week seems easier