Kickapps kicks some serious Butt!

What's in a name? EVERYTHING!

I've discovered a really cool website that is offering a wide variety of services for FREE! Yes, free of charge if you allow advertising on your site. This isn't your Grandmother's site, with something free of charge that is extremely lame; these are apps that totally rock. The name of the site is KickApps, and they offer Social and Media applications free of charge, or for a fee if you want to go advertising free on your site.

KickApps has a wide variety of applications for you to use on your site, including: social networking, photo & video sharing, comments & ratings, message boards, blogs, widgets, video players, & a feed manager. The people at KickApps are very helpful and have even thought of devoting a completely different site to help companies who are using their apps. The second site is called KickDeveloper, a community of KickApps affiliates. This site has blogs, messageboards, and much more. It is a place for developers to connect, share ideas, and learn how to use KickApps in the development of their own sites. Very cool!

KickApps has already helped a site win an Emmy...seriously! The Phoenix Suns won an Emmy for their site called Planet Orange which is powered by KickApps. Overall, I think that this idea is awesome, and the company has done an amazing job to promote itself. I have seen KickApps advertising all over the web, on numerous sites, even on a Twitter application that I have on my iPhone. They are spreading their advertising around and obviously the word is getting out. If I were developing a site, I would definitely consider using some of their apps in my design.

Mashable - we're not talking potatoes

So my blog, which is about interesting and useful websites, is taking a turn toward a very cool site this week. I simply stumbled upon Mashable.com which is a blog about "all that's new on the web." This blog covers topics that are of interest to those in the PR field, as well as the everyday reader. There is a resources section, social networking section, as well as a mobile section, and several others.

As I mentioned before, I am pretty new to this site, but nearly every blog that I have read has been quite good. These guys seem to know what they are talking about, and like their motto states, they are introducing their readers to new sites and applications on the web. As a PR professional, I would definitely bookmark this site and check it regularly for updates.

For all of you Twitter freaks (yes, even though I dissed Twitter in class, I find myself checking it daily... am I addicted) I have found yet another link on mashable that has a TON of Twitter apps for you to get crazy with. Check the article out here.

Twitter - Oh the places you can go.

So, the class did a Twitter assignment last week (yes, you were all there, so this is not news to you) and I thought it would be fitting to find some Twitter fun to share with the class for my blog entry today. I have to admit that I was very skeptical about the whole Twitter thing, and after doing the assignment, I still think that Twitter is kind of weird. On the other hand, I have come to realize that this is an outlet for networking that can prove to be quite beneficial. I also found another PR professional who was skeptical as well, but he has changed his mind recently, so maybe I need to give Twitter some time to grow on me!

I found a site that shows five new Twitter tools that you should check out. Click here to take a look.

I wanted to share these tools with you because they will simplify your experience on Twitter. Personally, I don't think Twitter is the most user-friendly site out there. As someone who is pretty techno-savvy, I just get irritated with websites that are annoying to use. So, if I can find tips and tricks to make a potentially useful site easier, I will definitely use them.

After reading PRBlogNews (my first link), and using Twitter, I fully understand how this tool can be used to assist PR professionals on the Internet.