ReadWriteStart

A new program that began earlier this year is looking for five IT-centric entrepreneurs to receive seed funds along with a series of services. Located in an underused mixed-use office building in downtown St. Louis, the program is run by two venture capitalists - Judy Sindecuse and Hal Gentry - who have formed a new entity called Capital Innovators. And yes, each of the five selected will receive $50k, along with free Internet hosting services, accounting and legal services, and intensive hands-on mentoring for 12 weeks.

Bit.ly, the reigning king of Twitter's short URL service is taking a good hard look at malware. In a blog post published earlier today, the company announced a partnership with three security giants to beef up protection for the millions of Bit.ly short links whizzing through Facebook and Twitter every month. The company will incorporate Verisign's iDefense IP reputation service, WebSense's ThreatSeeker Cloud Service and Sophos' Web Alert Services.

Canadian company ConnectionPoint is about to unveil its FundRazr Facebook application as the only service utilizing both PayPal X's Adaptive Account API and its Adaptive Payment API. Initially launched in private beta at TC50, Fundrazr allows users to collect fees and donations through Facebook.

If Twitter really does reach the far recesses of the earth, then doesn't it make sense for us to harness that diversity of opinions? We've seen the effects of Twitter on emergency aid, nonprofit fundraising and political outreach. However, if we just want to crowdsource a simple question like "Which of these 3 movies should I see?" or "Which of these is your favorite blogging platform?" a simple poll would suffice. Below is a list of 6 services you can use to get the answers you need from your Twitter friends and followers:

Particle, the Justin Timberlake-funded microapp development shop, is dedicated to creating "massively small" products that provide simple, creative solutions to real problems.

When we first reviewed their Robo.to application, we weren't sure whether to be confused or delighted - but we knew there was more to the app than met the eye. Not long ago, we had a telephone chat with Particle CEO Rey Flemings; he revealed that Robo.to is to become the channel-surfer of the real-time web. He also told us what Particle is rolling out next. Read on for insights on the microapp universe - including monetization - and a few surprises, as well.

Aviary, the free, web-based suite of image-editing apps, is hatching a new addition today: A free, web-based audio editor to rival GarageBand and its ilk.

The application, called Myna, will allow users to create and mix up to 15 tracks of up to 5 minutes in length, composed from Aviary's library of 3,000 loops and beats and/or user-recorded tracks. Obviously, this is leading to the next logical step: A free, online video editor.

Think twice about that huge font and those glassy icons: Look and feel is the first thing we see and notice about most web apps and is often critical to an app's user experience, adoption, and ultimate success.

We chatted with a panel of expert aesthetes in the space, including Spymaster designer Eston Bond, veteran creative director Rich Barrett, designer/developer Warren Benedetto, Mike Rundle of 9rules and Beak fame, and the Paul du Coudray Lowdown, the winner of this year's Rails Rumble appearance category. Here's what they had to say about developers doing double duty as designers, trends they'd like to see disappear, and how aesthetics can help a startup sink or swim.

Several tech bloggers received a notice this morning that Twtapps, a suite of - you guessed it - applications developed around Twitter, was for sale. Twtapps' solo founder and developer Felipe Coimbra cited insufficient resources and a desire to develop new apps as the reason for the sale.

We asked a few questions about the state of the suite, including how much money he's asking for, how the suite was monetized, how many users he'd seen so far, which apps had gained the most traction, and how life as a third-party Twitter app developer had been for him. Read his answers and more below.

Embedded chat has been around for a while. We've covered chat services from companies such as Meebo,Tangler, and a slew of others.

However, for simplicity, versatility, UI, and sheer elegance, newcomer Olark takes the cake. Originally called Hab.la, this Y Combinator startup has created - dare we say it? - the perfect or nearly perfect chat product for small businesses, ecommerce sites, or run-of-the-mill NMDs who like to add that extra touch of real-time accessibility to their sites or blogs. Read on to see how simple we really found it (no code needed, folks!) and the insane tricks we were able to pull using Olark chat.

In 48 hours last weekend, 237 developer teams competed and generated a total of 137 qualifying web applications, all developed with Ruby and Rails on the back end.

The 2009 Rails Rumble was, according to organizers, the strongest yet in the contest's history. (Disclosure: I was on the "expert panel" of judges for the Rumble and got a sneak peak at a significant handful of apps.)