Below is a list of such apps - and it is a fairly wide-ranging list, and open to contention about what exactly is an "online collaboration platform". I've included the main Web Office suite players, as well as project mgmt apps and some wiki platforms. And I'm bound to have missed a couple of obvious apps (do me a favor and yell out which obvious apps I forgot to include, asap, in the comments!).

The poll is also multiple-choice, as I know a lot of people will use more than one of these apps (I know I do). So please participate in the poll and let's see which online collaboration platforms are the most popular.

Size Doesn't Matter

According to Powers, asking how many apps exist for a given platform is now a moot question. All the major platforms now offer more than enough apps and as long as people can find the apps they are looking for - and as long as these apps are good - most consumers will be happy. Most users simply don't need 50 different apps to write their grocery lists.

Looking at Mplayit's list of the most popular apps across the top platforms, it also becomes clear that quite a few of these categories are being dominated by known brands like Shazam, Pandora, Evernote and Facebook. Mplayit, of course, is in the business of giving app recommendations across platforms and doesn't fail to note that it's own store is a good alternative for finding apps outside of the standard top 20 charts.

Or Does It?

To some degree, Powers' comments about the size of today's app stores rings true. Maybe it really doesn't matter that the Android store only features about 20,000 apps and that the Apple App Store now holds more than 100,000. Maybe it is true that consumers tend to gravitate towards the same brands on all platforms.

At the same time, though, having more apps in the store also means that there is a more active developer ecosystem around a given platform. While iPhone developers rightly gripe about Apple's approval process, we've seen a lot more innovative apps for the iPhone than for Android.

Is the size of the Android market holding you back from making the switch? Do you think Android has enough good apps that make up for the smaller app store? Do you think the quality of today's BlackBerry apps is good enough? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

With so many different platforms to aggregate, noise levels are surging. An underlying issue in the level of noise is that some of these services were not made to interact with one another. Users of social aggregation tools should understand that what you may consider noise is actually a side-effect of using a social aggregation platform. Users should also note when you may be confusing aggregation with importation.

Though importation may be a necessary step within aggregation, there is a difference between the two. Importation is usually more selective and limited to the inclusion of select items of other services. This may include common specifics such as names, ages, and locations. However, with aggregation a service attempts to conglomerate key features and entire contents of other services. This makes aggregation seemingly more flexible due to it's ability to encompass a wider scope of content.

Using Platforms for Different Purposes

The services that are aggregated are usually used for entirely different purposes. For example, some platforms are used to keep in touch with others such as family, friends, or business contacts. On the other hand, you have services that are used only for the purpose of finding more content and conversations pertaining to certain contents.

When you pull in an account from a platform that is completely unrelated to to the usage of another, you will inevitably create a small amount of noise. However, with social aggregation platforms it's hardly ever just one account. This can increase the noise level to an irritating high for other members of these services, including those within your personal network.

Services Cater To Various Audiences

Aggregated services are not only used for entirely different purposes, but also cater to different audiences. Consequently, who you may be catering to is dependent upon why you may be using the service. While some articles or content submitted to services may overlap, this is only because there are overlapping interests for the different audiences on these platforms.

How does this affect noise levels? If you're using a service to promote content, you may be considered noisy to those that are looking for conversations. If you're using a platform to keep in touch, then those looking for content and in depth conversation surrounding particular content would need a way to block out idle chatter.

Filters Are The Future Of Social Media

Filters are rapidly becoming a pertinent issue for developers of social media services. As a result, social aggregation platforms are in the perfect position to lead the pack. While this is no easy task and one that cannot be solved in its entirety, it would help resolve another issue social media users are facing: courtesy.

Instead of being able to freely add whatever service you wish, some users like myself are taking into account what others may consider noise on certain services as a courtesy to members. In essence, you are becoming our own filter. You may refrain from important other services for fear of being labeled as "noisy". With better filtering options, users can use these services to their fullest extent without becoming a nuisance to others or missing the benefits of aggregating all of their accounts.

The M.insight application sorts the feeds into four main categories: social media, public relations, marketing and branding, and advertising. It also includes two "in-house" categories which feature feeds from the MWW Group themselves ("MWW/DialogueMedia" and "D.insight").

M.insight functions like an RSS reader, but one that you don't have to set up on your own, meticulously adding feeds one-by-one. Instead, this blog reader is already configured and ready to go. You can, though, add and delete feeds within a category if you so desire.

The app is available on three mobile platforms: the iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. On all three platforms, the app does full feed caching (including images) so you can read your feeds even when offline - a feature more useful on the WiFi-only iPod than the others. On the Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, M.insight lets you email articles from within the app or post them to Twitter or Delicious. You can also access other news and info like weather, stocks, sports, flights, etc. 

Although targeted toward the PR/Marketing niche, we think many of you would also enjoy this application, especially the "social media" category which features feeds from top blogs like ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Chris Brogan, Web Strategist, CenterNetworks and Scobleizer.

To try M.insight for yourself, you can download it from the iTunes App Store by clicking here or for Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, click here.

Now enterprise mashup platforms, such as Presto Wires from JackBe, are starting to gain traction. In January 2007, an Economist Intelligence Unit survey (PDF - please note that this is a separate report than the Forrester report mentioned elsewhere in this post) revealed that mashups were the most popular traditional web 2.0 technology in the enterprise, with 64% of companies saying they already use or planned to use mashups within the next 2 years.

Mashups come in three distinct flavors in the enterprise, says Forrester:

• Presentation layer mashup. This is the most simple variety. Presentation layer mashups present content from disparate sources together in a unified view. A start page like Netvibes would be an example.
• Data mashup. More complex than presentation layer mashups, data mashups "combine, manipulate, and tie together disparate data sources to present a unified view." An example would be Twittervision.
• Process mashup. Says Forrester: "The most complex of the three, process mashups allow users to mashup not just data sources but also business processes themselves, customizing process design and invoking business logic across multiple applications."

Forrester believes that the enterprise mashup market will hit a tipping points in 2009-2010 and will fold into the IT landscape by 2013. "As a result," writes Forrester, "we expect traditional collaboration and productivity vendors like IBM and Microsoft to ultimately come to dominate the mashup platform market, rolling mashup platforms into major products like SharePoint and the Lotus application suite."

Yahoo's Big Bets for the Next 5 Years

See slide 16:

1. Next Generation Experience --> a.k.a. a customer focus, the user experience

They listed a progression of user experiences, from the Directory in the early years, to Content Verticals, to Web-based Services (communicate), Social Media (communities) and multi-device (“I want to have access to my stuff wherever I go and on any device” -- e.g. Yahoo! Go).

2. Monetization

3. Platforms

4. Beyond the Browser - a particular focus on Yahoo Go and mobile (see slide 51, which states Yahoo has a "Mobile Leadership Position")

Media Group priorities

Slide 58:

2006 Priorities: Create Superior User Experience

• Build robust platforms
• Develop key strategic relationships
• Maximize user generated content
• Build core brand extensions

Lotsa Mollah!

Slide 170 - The Internet Ecosystem: Roughly An $80 Billion Global Industry

This is why Microsoft wants to be a media company!

So in summary, Yahoo as usual is making all the right noises. Focus on user experience, building platforms, user generated content, etc. Of course as Greg Sterling noted, "The theory is right on, executing is very hard."

Opera, which is now available not only for Mac and PC, but also a number of mobile devices and platforms, now including the iPhone.

Opera says that "the acquisition will enable Opera to expand its current messaging product portfolio and deliver cross-platform messaging to a wide range of devices, including computers, mobile phones, TVs and gaming consoles."

When I first installed the Rock Your Firefox app, I wasn't too sure what it was for. But I soon discovered its main purpose is to be a community list of Firefox add-ons, where you can share your favorite add-ons with other Facebook users. Likewise you can see which Firefox add-ons your friends are using. A social network for Firefox add-on users, basically.

A commenter on the Rock Your Firefox homepage asked how this is different from browsing the Mozilla Add-ons site. Paul Kim, marketing director at Mozilla, replied that the main difference is that the Facebook app enables you to "find recommended add-ons from your friends on Facebook who use Firefox, and in turn letting your FB friends know the add-ons you think are useful."

This has its uses, because I have to admit that I'm curious what add-ons my friends use. For example I was able to click on Jay Meattle's FB profile and see that he is using the following two Firefox add-ons:

The main problem with this app? It doesn't display your existing add-ons. It only shows add-ons you add using Rock Your Firefox. There needs to be an automatic way for the app to detect existing add-ons and add them to your profile.

Also, it must be asked: why did Mozilla decide to create this social network on Facebook and not add their own social network functionality onto the Firefox Add-ons website? The 34 Million Facebook users was certainly a factor. And in a way it demonstrates how Facebook is becoming like a 'social network add-on' for other web apps and platforms. Why re-invent the social networking wheel when you can plug into Facebook?

What is a platform? It's a technical welcome mat that allows developers from outside of a company tie their software to the software offering the platform. How's that for an explanation? Feel free to share your one-line explanation, too.

Comparing Five Recently Announced Platforms

Each of the platforms above has a flavor and in order to clarify all the talk about platforms, I decided to make a chart. These are the things I look at when trying to understand where a new platform lies in the landscape. All of this is so new that it's hard to know how to compare them for sure, but I think most of the following is from a user's perspective. It's also mostly prediction as almost none of these platforms are live yet. These comparison charts are always a challenge, and they're usually pretty subjective - but please let me know of any details I've gotten wrong and I'll correct any mistakes.

OpenSocial

The Google-lead but open-standards based initiative could be huge, or it could just be for cross-site widget publishing. It's all about the applications, it appears so far. It is open to any participant and many companies are announcing that are building apps that leverage OpenSocial to travel freely from one social networking site to the next.

Facebook

The original platform, at least as far as this wave in concerned. It's a walled garden application-wise, those apps aren't going anywhere but Facebook. Anyone can create a Facebook app, they can pull content in from offsite but cannot publish offsite and it's not really about cross site identity, either. The Facebook app platform is pretty limited, really, and those who treated its arrival like a divine act are liable to feel silly shortly.

Android

Google's open mobile OS was just unveiled to the developers of the world and probably only belongs on this list because it's a platform that's open to anyone. Otherwise it's like apples and oranges - hard to compare with the other platforms here.

Box.net

Online storage startup Box.net released today some limited access to their new platform, OpenBox. OpenBox will in time let any application access your media content stored at Box.net. It's not as ambitious in scope as the other platform plays, but it might prove to be one of the most utilitarian. This platform makes me think of an Amazon web service, but direct to consumers. For more in-depth coverage of today's announcement from Box.net see Josh Lowensohn's post on the platform.

Bebo

Bebo is big in the UK and New Zealand but readers from elsewhere may not think much of it. None the less, its userbase is substantial (40 million) and today Bebo announced a platform of its own. It's called Open Media but it doesn't appear terribly open. It looks like a white listing of professionally produced, big media content. While it won't get nearly as much hype as some of the other platforms, and perhaps is only loosely deserving of the platform title - it's probably going to be another very smart move for this growing social network. If you've got users and you're making money, who needs geek hype?

MySpace

Note that MySpace isn't included here, but they appear determined to continue developing their own platform in addition to participating in OpenSocial. It will be interesting to see if they do anything that pushes the envelope.

Conclusion

I hope that this brief comparison will prove helpful in comparing these darned platforms. They are popping up like weeds, so I'm sure this list will seem woefully short by the end of the week.

Platforms are good, standards are better - data portability is some peoples' ideal, others see superior service even in walled gardens as the ultimate goal. There's every reason to believe that more platforms are on the way, though.

Reading between the lines of the talk there are a couple of things that become apparent for what Microsoft has planned for Skype. Foremost, Ballmer said Skype will continue to be a cross-platform service.

"I said it and I mean it. Microsoft will continue to support non-Microsoft platforms because it is fundamental to the value proposition of communications," Ballmer said. "We are one of the few companies that has a track record of doing this. Take a look at the work we have done over the years with Office, for example, for the Mac ... we have a track record of understanding our customers and the need to support our customers as they want to travel."

"We have had an incredible uptake in our Lync unified communications client and we are committed to want to build on that success," Ballmer said. "The product is off to a fantastic start and we have plans to enhance it in addition to connecting it through the rest of the Skype customer base which, in and of itself, I think is a great value."

Microsoft and Skype anticipate that the acquisition will get regulatory approval within the year.

Ballmer spoke a lot of about how Skype will integrate in to Window Phone and the various other platforms that Microsoft owns. From Kinect and Xbox down through the Microsoft product chain like Hotmail. At the same time, Microsoft has often been a company that wants to be your everything, everywhere. There was a sense from Ballmer and Bates that they would want to roll out Skype integration to every possible service they can get it on. Skype as a platform by itself could not do that. It has a massive user base but probably not the cash resources for the breadth and scope that Microsoft envisions for it.

Earlier this week we heard that MySpace will launch its 3rd party developer platform in just a few weeks. And of course the instigator of large scale social networking platforms, Facebook, announced their "open platform" in May 2007. Although it turned out to be not quite so open, the Facebook platform has been probably the year's biggest Web success story to date.

So the social network 'platform wars' will be well and truly on, once MySpace and now Bebo launch their developer platforms! Watch this space for more on the Bebo news...

Here is the first screenshot of Firefox running on Android (in an emulator):

Currently, the Android version is still missing a number of core features and Vukićević still has to work out quite a few bugs (the keyboard doesn't work, for example). Now that the team has managed to create a working prototype, however, Vukićević expects the development process to speed up significantly.

Mozilla is Taking Aim at the Mobile Browser Market

Firefox is clearly working at creating a stronger presence on mobile platforms like Maemo, Windows Mobile, and Android. For now, however, Opera still has a stronger presence in the mobile market, with apps for Windows Mobile, Android and virtually every other major mobile platform. Mozilla is still a step behind here, but hopefully we will soon see a lot more competition in the mobile browser market. Mozilla doesn't currently have any plans to develop a browser for the BlackBerry, Symbian or iPhone platforms.

[via Android Central]

For many years, Salesforce.com has had the policy of announcing their next big move on the eve of their annual Dreamforce event (aka, where Salesforce partners get to pitch their stuff). In past years they announced internal facing applications, used by employees. Even if the employees were talking to customers, it was still an internal app. The news was simply that it was SaaS.

Today Salesforce.com Says Hello World

They are announcing a way to build apps that connect the internal facing processes that drive and account for transactions with the external public web based apps. This is a big move. The two examples they showed were travel and recruitment, but it does not take too much imagination to think of more. Given the size of the Dreamforce ecosystem on display in the convention center, one assumes that there is a big pipeline of apps under development.

Which Way Do You Face?

As with any new tool or API, there are other ways to achieve the same end. The question is simply which way is more efficient. It is really a question of which way you face. Do you look from the web into back end enterprise systems? That is the traditional way it is done today. The web developer asks the back end system how they want their data and how it will get data back. The Salesforce.com way looks the other way, from the back end systems out to the world.

Timing Is Good To Get Developers

They are likely to get a lot of traction with developers for three reasons:

1. Enterprise SaaS is going mainstream, it is a big market to get into right now.

2. Consumer services are facing a downturn, developers need something new.

3. Getting into back end processes is a better way to build long term client engagements.

Platforms Here, Platforms There

Platforms are everywhere. Developers love Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine looks so cool. There will be a bit of tug within the developers between what looks most technically elegant with least lock-in, versus what will make money quickly and reliably. It is possible that Salesforce will appeal to these more pragmatic types, the ones who have been the mainstay of the Microsoft ecosystem in the past.

The new program, called @author, lets Kindle users highlight a passage and then ask the author a question about it via their Amazon author page or Twitter. Only questions as long as 100 characters can be asked from within the e-book itself, but more in-depth curiosities can be posted to the author's official page on Amazon.

If you've got something nasty to say, this probably isn't the place to do it, as Amazon encourages readers to "behave as if you were a guest at a friend's dinner party" and leave profanity and insults out of it.

The feature represents, as Nieman Journalism Lab so effectively put it, a step toward "a book culture that is increasingly author-driven" rather than one driven strictly by publishers or even necessarily books. Amazon is "is charting a new course for the publishing industry" by "commodifying the charisma of the authors who sell material on its platforms," Nieman Lab's Megan Garber writes.

Continues Garber:

Already we're seeing new, largely tablet-driven publishing platforms challenging and transforming our assumptions about what a book is and can be; already we're seeing publishing platforms that emphasize authors' fan communities as value propositions unto themselves. @Author is the next step in that process: the digital commodification of authorship that takes place by way of community and conversation.

Amazon took a step toward social reading earlier this year with the quiet launch of Kind Profiles, which let users display their reading activity and connect with other readers in a Goodreads-style feature.

The @author feature is in limited beta right now, and appears to only be available on Kindle devices rather than from within the Kindle app on other platforms. Participating authors include Tim Ferris, Susan Orlean, Steven Johnson and about a dozen others.

There are more and more ways to get your instant messaging done, with a large number of new online and offline clients from third parties. With so many instant messaging options, it's hard to figure out which one to use. Below, we've listed a large number of online and offline instant messengers, as well the various protocols supported by each, so that you can more easily find the one that's right for you. There's really not all that much difference between each except in interface and supported protocols. The best option for you will likely be the one that supports the networks your friends connect to and has an interface that you feel comfortable using. If there are any we've missed, please mention them in the comments. (Note: we did not link to any official offline clients.)

Name: Meebo
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber

Name: FlickIM
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber

Name: Kool IM
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Xfire

Name: eBuddy
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, MySpace

Name: ILoveIM
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, webcams/video chat

Name: RadiusIM
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk

Name: Imo.im
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk

Name: Mabber
Supports: Proprietary Jabber-based (aimed at mobiles)

Name: IMUnitive
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, gim (proprietary)

Name: Snimmer
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber

Name: EasyMessenger
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, Jabber

Name: MessengerFX
Supports: MSN

Name: IMhaha
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, QQ

Name: Google Talk
Supports: GTalk, Jabber

Name: Yahoo! Web Messenger (web.im)
Supports: Yahoo!, MSN

Name: MSN Web Messenger
Supports: Yahoo!, MSN

Name: AIM Express
Supports: AIM

Name: ICQ2Go
Supports: ICQ

Name: JWChat - Jabber Web Chat
Supports: Jabber

Name: Trillian Astra (closed alpha)
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MySpace, iChat

Offline Clients

Name: Trillian
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, IRC
Platforms: Windows

Name: Pidgin
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, QQ, MySpace, iChat, IRC, Lotus, Novell
Platforms: Windows, UNIX

Name: Adium
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, QQ, iChat, Lotus, Novell, LiveJournal
Platforms: Mac OS X

Name: AirTalker
Supports: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MySpace, Friendster, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, blogging
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X (via Adobe AIR), also has web version

Name: Miranda IM
Supports: AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, IAX, Tlen, Netsend
Platforms: Windows