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Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.

Which note taking applications do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.

Evernote

Evernote is one of the most talked about online note taking applications. One special feature here is the drag-and-drop desktop version that allows you to see your notes and clips offline. You can use the Evernote mobile application for your Windows Mobile phone or iphone to capture pictures and record audio to send to your Evernote account. You can also email notes to Evernote using a secret email address.

Google Notes

Google Notes has some nice features including collaboration among multiple users, a publishing feature, integration with Google Bookmarks, the ‘Unfiled bookmarks’ link on the left sidebar of the Google Notes Web interface that sorts and displays all the urls you have saved, quick clippings of Web pages with the ’star’ button, and the export to Google Docs feature.

UberNote

UberNote works in the same manner as Google Notes. However, one neat feature here is that you can add your tasks in any note that you are working on. Later, you can view the ‘Open Tasks’ link on the sidebar of the UberNote interface to open all notes with incomplete tasks. Similarly, you can integrate your bookmarks with any note and find it later with the ‘Bookmarks’ link. Other nice things to know about UberNote are that it runs on AJAX and has a history feature that will save all the revisions you make on your notes. You can clip notes with the UberNote online dashboard, with the browser extension, email your notes to a personal email address, or from an AOL IM application.

Springnote

Springnote is an OpenID enabled online note taking application that takes a different approach than the ones mentioned above. This one is not for writing short notes and clipping websites, but longer notes, and comes out just a bit different than an average online office suite. The Springnote note editor is feature rich and you can choose from a variety of templates, plugins , and insert video and audio to enhance your notes. You can collaborate, share your notes with friends, or post them on your blog.

WebAsyst Notes

WebAsyst Notes comes with features for including attachments to your notes. You can sort the notes into specific folders and share the folders with your contacts. WebAsyst also has features to add files, photos, contacts, mail, projects, an issue tracker, pages, and a shopping cart.

Luminotes

Luminotes,a personal wiki notebook, as the site describes itself, is an easy to use wiki that lets you create notes. You can attach files to your wiki, and share them with your friends. Features such as automatic saving and revision tracking are very useful. Once you have completed your wiki, you can download it as well. This is not one of the conventional online notebooks but a key reason why you might want to use this is because of one feature that allows you to hyperlink one word or sentence in a notebook to another.

Stikkit

Stikkit wants to be a smart application without being clever. What it does is pick up specific terms from your notes and arrange your notes as to-do lists, calendars, contacts (peeps), bookmarks and tags list. Now is that smart enough? You can also choose to share your Stikkit notes with your contacts and receive comments. For quick Web clippings, it provides a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari, and a right click menu option for Internet Explorer users.

Fruitnotes

Fruitnotes allows you to create notes by calling a specific phone number, though currently they have only listed a US and UK number. It also allows you to create your own profile and view others’, thus doubling up as a social networking platform. The note editor is feature rich and lets you upload images and videos. Once done, you can publish your note for everyone to see.

Notefish

Notefish is a simple online note taking application that allows you to drag and drop your notes, resize them, color them, tag them, and share with contacts. You can also move one note from a particular project to another easily. There is a Firefox addon that you can use to clip Web pages conveniently.

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is the most sophisticated and most feature-laden online note application of the bunch. Zoho Notebook provides you a palette where you can type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. There are also various tools like the Line tool, Freehand tool, Select tool, Hand tool, and Shapes. There is a rich text editor with export, publish, and share features. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats and IP telephony, or use the Firefox plugin to add Web clips easily. If you are the advanced online notebook user type, then you will find Zoho Notebook providing the solutions to almost all your requirements. I said ‘almost,’ as I couldn’t find a mobile phone support for Zoho.

[Image credit: Jacob Boetter (attribution)]

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A new series called Model.Live is debuting this week on Bebo (see here). As you may have guessed, the show is about models. Produced by IMG Media and Vogue.TV, this made-for-Web series follows three female models, Austria Alcantara, Cato van Ee and Madeline Kragh along their journeys from their homes to the catwalk.

The show will premier on Vogue.TV tonight, and will be redistributed on Bebo, where each model will also have a profile for updating their blogs, video diaries, text messages, photos, schedules, and more. This format is rather typical of what we’ve seen for webisodes, especially those that are syndicated on networks like Bebo and MySpace, as they leverage the multi-faceted capabilities for sharing and spreading content throughout a community in hopes of engaging viewers on a higher and more integral level. It’s worked for the most part, carrying on the legacy of EQAL from LG15’s success on YouTube into the Bebo-specific KateModern series.

Model.Live’s sponsor, Express, has found some sensible branding opportunities with this very targeted content, providing featured merchandise available for purchase on its retail website. It seems like a prime opportunity for the inclusion of interactive video ads such as those offered by Overlay.tv and others, especially as such Web-only series begin to provide improved traction for brand marketing, and potential content for mainstream media outlets.

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This is a guest post written by Michael Cerda. He blogs about startups, people and the variety hour at Cerdafied.

Outsourcing product development (or parts of development) offshore sounds like a good idea at the time. After all, you can augment your dev group quickly and on the cheap. But it only seems to work under certain conditions; mileage does vary depending on the company. Longer-term enterprise development projects tend to be better suited for outsourcing than shorter-term consumer Internet projects for example (I learned this the hard way). It has to do with development cycles, level of skill required for tasks, time to market, and the ability to iterate.

Arguably, you shouldn’t ever completely outsource your product development. Some things are just too strategic to lose control over. If you do decide to outsource some parts, here are some tips.

1. Hire one of them

Hire someone locally who was originally from the country you’re outsourcing to. Oftentimes different languages or dialects exist in other countries, so be sure your guy speaks the lingo. Also be tuned into other cultural nuances (for example, make sure there aren’t centuries-old bad blood between your guy and the people at the firm you use).

2. Nurture them

You’ll want to take the time and make the investment in having an occasional call or even a visit to the offshore location. Offering a face and voice from the top helps gain buy-in, support and motivation for the project. Obviously if you have to do too much of this, it’s not worth it.

3. Package the tasks

Be mindful not to overwhelm them with a complex project with multiple touch points and dependencies. Have a baked, signed off spec completed and committed to and assign straightforward pieces of it. When you assign something, ask for a time/cost estimate which you can measure back to later. Once the work has been verified and tested you’ll be able to establish a baseline level of quality and performance; from there you’ll be able to give them more rope.

4. Top grade

Offshore dev shops tend to assign you a mixed team of some good folks, some ok folks, and some green folks. These proportions are simply part of their business model. Just don’t let it get the best of your development cycle and product quality. Ask for resumes and interviews of the people they’re assigning to your team.

5. Communicate with one voice

Use the guy from #1 to funnel all communications between your team and theirs. Besides language and time zone issues, there are project management and accountability requirements. The more chiefs you have, the more fingers you have pointing. You can’t afford the he said/she said.

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Firefox can be made into so much more than just a browser via its huge extension base.  Yes, this means you can replace some of your instant messenger, chat and microblogging needs by adding just a few extensions. Here are 18 tools that will let you turn your Firefox 3 browser into a communications portal.

Whenever we discuss numerous Firefox add-ons, we like to remind you that we do not recommend you install ALL of them unless you like your browser slowing down.

Messaging

ChatZilla! - In a time before instant messengers exploded in popularity, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was all the rage, and it is still quite popular.  This extension will add an IRC client to your browser so you don’t have to open a separate program.

Gabbly Chat Sidebar - A sidebar client for Gabbly chats hosted on any Web page or community.

Google Talk - Allows you to add Google Talk integration to your browser.

GTalk Sidebar - This sidebar extension allows you to use Google Talk in your window without having to stay on GMail all the time. It also lets you save yourself the effort of installing the stand alone GTalk application for your desktop.

Meebo - Adds integrated instant messaging via the Meebo system inside of your browser.  In the sidebar you can see which buddies are online, as well as which system they are using, and when need be, you can drag links and images over to them.  You can learn more about Meebo in this episode of Mashable Conversations.

SamePlace - Works in Firefox, Flock and Thunderbird to give you the ability to chat with your contacts on AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Twitter and Yahoo.

SMS Sidebar - This extensions gives you the ability to send SMS messages to just about any phone in the world.  It does cost money after the first 50 text messages, but seems to be reasonably priced and offers numerous features.

WataCrackaz AutoSMS - Allows free two-way SMS text messaging to phones all around the world and actually allows you to receive replies.

Yaplet - Adds the Yaplet chat system to your sidebar so you no longer have to switch tabs while you chat and can continue to surf as you talk.

Yoono - The Yoono sidebar can be updated with widgets for all major instant messengers.

Microblogging

FirePownce - An official extension from Pownce that allows you to update your account via a button added to Firefox.

Fownce -Allows you to post the current URL you are viewing to Pownce or just post a general update to your account.

Mahalo Share - Lets you recommend a page across numerous services, including Pownce and Twitter.

Shareaholic.com - Lets you update numerous services from one handy plugin, including Pownce and Twitter.

Twitkit - Highly customizable Twitter application that allows you to choose colors, look up your account information, manage your followers and more.

TwitterBar - An interesting extension for Firefox that allows you to use the browser’s address bat to also send Tweets to your account on Twitter.

TwittyTunes - Feel a burning desire to tell Twitter what you are listening to via FoxyTunes?  This extension will solve your dilemma.

Twitzer - Twitzer is not a Twitter client, but a tool to help you get more than the 140 characters into that little box.

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Frank Warren, PostSecret blogger and author of “A Lifetime of Secrets,” is now chatting live on live.yahoo.com/mashable, answering questions and comments. He will also be reading PostSecret postcards that he received this morning.

This is the fourth installment of our PostSecret four part series. If you missed the first three be sure to check out Warren’s Personal introduction, post on viral mechanisms, and most recent post on using social media to create positive change.

*The video embed below is a live broadcast, but you must log into Mashable’s Y! Live Channel to chat with Warren.

---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Next Up on Authors @ Mashable Series - Frank Warren of PostSecretTweetcret: Ideally Amusing, But Inherently FlawedShould PostSecret Send NBCU a DMCA Notice?Using Social Media to Generate Positive Change (Authors @ Mashable)Frank Warren’s Introduction to PostSecret (Authors@Mashable)Frank Warren’s A Lifetime of Secrets of PostSecretA PostSecret Guide to Going Viral (Authors @ Mashable)

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Just Leap In

20-word Description: Just Leap In brings innovation to 3D worlds on the Web, combining simplicity, next-gen visuals and physics, multimedia sharing and social networking.

CEO’s Pitch: We use the Web every day to check on friends, browse multimedia and news, and discover new people. Just Leap In aims to bring that daily simplicity to virtual worlds, on any webpage. When you land in JLI, we want you to feel like you’re smack in the middle of a social community where you can express yourself, upload multimedia, and link to friends - not in the middle of an empty island. And unlike other Web-delivered virtual worlds, we’re already delivering next-gen 3D graphics and physics to both Mac & PC, Firefox & IE.

Mashable’s Take: The concept of a virtual world in terms of a graphical, game-like environment doesn’t particularly suit my interests. Yet I find Just Leap In, a beta release launched out of Vancouver, Canada, offers a surprisingly rich experience in terms of interaction with objects and visual detail of most everything involved. What’s more, all such interplay is accomplished within one’s browser.

Now, it should be said that there is a software download necessary to browse Just Leap In’s dimensions. But it is available for Mac and PC users, and the time it takes to install said download and begin enjoying what’s been created is a simple matter of restarting Firefox/IE.

Gamers familiar with the mouse-plus-keyboard setup will have little trouble adjusting to the set of options shown in the controls panel. But it’s a bit unintuitive so far as the use of the mouse cursors is concerned. You may find yourself wanting to change your view with your cursor, but that cannot happen. At least it is not possible on the Mac side of the equation. Instead, you must use your keyboard to do so. JLI’s creators instruct the user to complete a Ctrl click drag maneuver for something called “mouselook,” but this process is evidently disturbed by a very similar Ctrl click trigger that brings up a Reset/Set Start/Revert Texture menu of choices.

If you’re willing jump this hurdle, though, you will find Just Leap In an appealing alternative to Second Life and its competitors. It’s browser-based nature makes it something of a stunner. The physics engine is a treat, and visual detail again is an outstanding highlight. A look at the world in full-screen is pretty remarkable when one considers the setting in which the application is operating.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

Just Leap In company profile provided by TradeVibes

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