Google took the fight straight to Microsoft’s door earlier this month when it announced Chrome OS, its take on what a modern operating system should look like. The initial target is netbooks, so here are ten things that a bit of Google magic could bring to the little laptop market.

1. Less is more
Chrome OS is lightweight, making it fast to run even on modest hardware. All the heavy lifting has been offloaded to Google’s central servers so you don’t need to lug round a portable powerhouse to make the most of it.

2. Instant on
Windows takes an age to boot - fine if you’re going to be stuck in there for the next eight hours, but if you just want to quickly check your email it’s frustratingly tardy. Chrome OS will be instant on, so you can be in and out before Windows has even had time to ask you if you want to download the latest security updates.

3. Super secure
Windows is always spring security leaks. Google has pledged to make Chrome extra safe by: “completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

4. Gamers go home
Chrome OS puts everything on the web, which means 3D shooters are a no go. But it does means there’s no need for fancy graphics chips, which will help keep costs down.

5. Online storage
You no longer need oodles of storage on board as Chrome OS will store your files in the cloud. As an added bonus, they’ll be accessible anywhere you’ve got the internet.

6. Better battery
As the hardware specs are minimal and it’s been designed with netbooks in mind, the batteries should just keep on going. And going. And going.

7. Two’s a charm
There’ll be the option to dual boot Chrome OS and Windows, so you can jump into Chrome OS when you want to quickly get thing done or have an extended Windows session if you need applications that only run in there.

8. Face lift
Netbooks aren’t known for their big screens, which makes Chrome OS’s cut down user interface a bonus. Less onscreen clutter, more pixels to work with.

9. Not ARM less
As well as standard Intel x86 chips, Google is planning a version that runs on super power efficient ARM chips which opens up the market to cheap netbooks with extra long of battery life.

10. Low, low price of free
With Windows a certain percentage of the netbook price gets funnelled straight back to Microsoft’s coffers. Chrome OS is free, which means more of your money is going on hardware.

Hollywood is having a pretty good summer. The latest Harry Potter flick will be the 16th $100 million earner of 2009, and the Transformers sequel has already made over $350 million at the US box office — good for a spot in the top 15 highest grossing films of all time. But if you want your movie experience to extend beyond the theater, where should you turn? For movie lovers, the social web is the place to be.

Here is a list of the top 10 best social networks for film buffs to hang out, discuss movies, get information about that latest films and upcoming releases, and meet other cinephiles. Where do you go for your movie fix on the web? Let us know in the comments.

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1. IMDb

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Though not the most attractive site by any stretch of the imagination, the The Internet Movie Database () (IMDb) has been the go-to site for movies since shortly after it was launched in 1990. Owned by Amazon since 1998, IMDb is easily the most complete film and television reference on the Internet, and also one of the most vibrant social gathering places for film fans.

IMBd offers an extensive network of message boards, which though technologically dated, are extremely comprehensive content-wise. Every film, television show, actor, actress, director, producer, and other named page on IMDb has its own message board. According to Big-Boards.com, the message boards at IMBd sport a whopping 13 million posts, and over 4 million members, making it one of the biggest discussion communities on the Internet.

In addition to message boards, IMDb offers cast and crew listings for the most comprehensive list of films and television shows you’ll ever find, trivia, quotes, reviews, ratings, goofs, box office data, trailers, photos, news, show times, plot descriptions, filming locations, and more.

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2. Flixster

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Thought it launched months earlier, Flixster () started experiencing phenomenal growth in 2007, and really took off when it released its “Movies” application on Facebook (), which remains one of that platform’s most popular apps.

Flixster is a full-featured social network for movie lovers offering film info, reviews, movie trailers, and other media, as well as general social networking features like profiles, comment walls, and friending. Where Flixster really excels, though, is in the way they bring movie fans together and help them connect around their favorite films. Their movie compatibility tests, movie night planner, quizzes and personality tests all make it easy to find friends and connect with people who have similar film tastes.

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3. FilmCrave

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FilmCrave is a fun movie rating and review social site that rewards users for participation using a points system. The site gives users points for rating movies, adding reviews, making lists, or writing plot summaries. The points are really just for posterity, but for film buffs who like to contribute to crowdsourced information projects, it adds some all-in-good-fun appeal to FilmCrave.

The site also has discussion forums, movie polls, and trailers.

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4. Criticker

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“We hated Shrek 2 and were shocked that nobody agreed with us,” explains Criticker’s about page. It was that dislike of Shrek 2, and the refusal to believe that no one shared the same opinion that lead the developers to found the movie rating social network, which creates a “Taste Compability Index” for each user based on film ratings (you have to rate at least 10 before you start to see TCIs, though the more you rank, the better the results).

Criticker makes it painfully easy to rate films — it gives you a list of movies and for the ones you’ve seen you enter a number between 0 and 100, as well as a review of under 500 characters (not required). Once you’ve rated enough films, the site starts to suggest films you might like (based on what they call a Probability Score Index), and pair you with people you might get along with based on a similar taste in movies (the TCIs).

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5. Flickchart

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The idea behind Flickchart () is to tap into the crowd to collaboratively assemble the most comprehensive ranking of films ever made. Flickchart’s method of deriving those rankings is a little unusual, but extremely simple and very addicting.

The site bases its list on a series of head-to-head matchups. Users are shown two films, if they’ve seen both, they pick which is better. Then they’re shown two new films, they pick the best and get two more, etc. If it seems odd to see The Little Mermaid up against The Godfather, well, it seemed odd to me at first as well.

But the logic makes sense — one of those two movies you enjoyed more than the other, so if you had to make a definitive list, which one would you pick? The result is that after you’ve completed enough head-to-head matchups, you start to see a pretty accurate list emerge (Flickchart re-inserts films you’ve already voted on fairly often, putting them up against other films so they move up or down your list). So what’s the #1 film globally at Flickchart right now? The Dark Knight.

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6. I Heart Movies

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I Heart Movies () is a movie information site that’s essentially trying to take on IMDb by combining detailed movie information with ratings, recommendations, and reviews. One way where the site really sets itself apart is that users can use it to catalog and keep track of their DVD collections.

That’s a godsend for me, because I have hundreds of DVDs and friends are always borrowing them. I Heart Movies also has information on over 3,000 films, over 40,000 people (actors, directors, writers), and has trailers, trivia, plot summaries, and discussion forums.

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7. Spout

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Spout isn’t the most polished film information site and social network on this list, but it is very complete. The info it provides about movies isn’t quite up to IMDb levels, but as a social network, the site provides plenty of ways for users to interact, including rating and reviewing films, discussion groups, film news, and trailers.

One unique feature on Spout is that users can mark films as “Want to See It” or “Seen It,” so that the site is able to compile a list of what users are watching or want to watch right now.

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8. Netflix

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While most people associate Netflix with it’s DVD-by-mail rental service, its Movie Fans social network is worth joining for users of the service. Powered by Ning, the site isn’t the most full-featured social network and doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles — it’s pretty standard Ning fare. However, it does feature a large number of active groups and discussion forums covering topics related to film and movies, as well as the Netflix service itself.

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9. The Auteurs

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The Auteurs isn’t just for people who like film. The Auteurs is a social network for people who love film. You won’t find anyone arguing about who should play the lead role in the next big Hollywood remake on this site. Instead you’ll find a community of people reviewing and discussing foreign films and dissecting the cinematography of scenes in classic cinema.

The Auteurs doesn’t endeavor to list every movie ever made, but rather lists the movies that real cinephiles care about. Another thing that sets the site apart is that you can watch many of the movies it lists for free (or for a small fee of $2 or $5). Further, the site has a section called “The Cinematheque,” which offers a set of four rotating, curated online film festivals every couple of months. One film festival currently running on the site was curated by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

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10. BoxOfficeMojo

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If the business of movies is your game, then IMDb-owned BoxOfficeMojo is your place. BoxOfficeMojo tracks how much films earn at the US and worldwide box office on a daily, weekly, and weekend basis. In addition to current box office charts and lists of the all-time highest grossing movies, the site also has forums, games, polls, and movie ratings.

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BONUS: Blippr Movies

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Mashable () readers will know that we run a community site called Blippr (), which lets you review movies and other media in 160 characters or less – it’s a kind of Twitter () for reviews. While we don’t include Blippr in this list, you can find out what other web users think of it by reading the Blippr reviews on Blippr.

There’s a cliché statement about entrepreneurship that says ideas are nothing without execution, rendering the former virtually worthless without the combination of hard work and luck that can transform unmaterialized concepts into viable businesses. Some have described ideas to be a mere multiplier of execution, which is close to how I personally think about them, and I would add that the process of getting a great product out there is a vital part of what constitutes innovation in the first place.

In my view, it’s not that ideas are worthless per se, it’s that they’re never more than a starting point, a launchpad.

I’ve been thinking about this all day after I read this blog post by Marjolein Hoekstra (who I consider to be a friend) about the original idea for Tweetmeme, a service that aggregates the most discussed and retweeted stories on Twitter (we use their retweet button at the bottom of blog posts, and you should use it).

I won’t dive deep into the details of the story because I’m trying to make a larger point, but here’s the gist: Hoekstra feels she doesn’t get enough credit publicly about the original idea for Tweetmeme, and calls out the company’s founder Nick Halstead for acknowledging her role and suggest perhaps they should even consider writing her a check. According to her, Halstead has been open about her role in Tweetmeme’s early days but has stopped doing that ever since they’ve raised about $650,000 in seed financing for taking the service to the next level. Halstead’s side of the story boils down to the fact that she was very involved in the (not so great) first version of the product, but they let it languish for 8 months and finally refocused and turned it into a great service without her help.

I tend to lean towards Halstead’s view on all this, despite my respect for Marjolein and knowing how knowledgeable she is about the Web and Twitter in particular. The way I see it, Tweetmeme is what it is in part of what Hoekstra talked about with Halstead et al. in the early days, through direct messages on Twitter and conversations on Skype. But it was a fairly obvious idea in the first place, and there were already others competing for the title “Techmeme for Twitter stories” when it first came out.

I’ve been in similar situations myself, having discussed business ideas with people online or offline and seeing them start a company, add a certain feature or rethink their strategy after these conversations (not that I’m saying I’m always right, quite the contrary). Sometimes I get credited, sometimes I don’t. But usually it’s not something I care much about, because I realize ideas are essentially a dime a dozen and there’s little chance that these people wouldn’t have made these moves without my help. Furthermore, most of the time it pleases me to see something happen because of something I told someone, whether it gets publicly credited or not.

I understand Hoekstra’s sentiment, but in general, I also think if your role is that significant from the get-go you should become a partner or somehow try to get compensated for your work early on. Complaining about not getting enough credit this late in the game comes off as envy rather than a call for sympathy, even if I know in Hoekstra’s case it’s most certainly the latter. To her credit, she blogs she just wants to get stuff settled between them and then move on.

Question is: what should one expect for helping shape an idea that turned into a business after many meetings, a lot of trial and error and some risk taking which did not involve her?

Take a two-minute guided tour of Shareflow.

Watch the video »

One of the best and most popular 3rd party apps for Twitter () is TwitPic (), the top service for sharing pictures via Twitter and Twitter apps such as Tweetie. Twitpic and its competitors (most notably Yfrog) have created a new photography-sharing ecosystem that connects friends and shares our best moments visually.

You haven’t experienced Twitter or Twitpics though if you haven’t seem them fly across your screen in realtime. It’s fascinating to see the people, experiences, and tweets that comprise the Twitterverse, and interestingly enough, there are a handful of tools dedicated to doing just that. So prepare for a visual odyssey as we highlight four tools for tracking TwitPics in realtime:

Got another realtime picture tracker you’d like us to know about? See something interesting in the image stream? Let us know in the comments.

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1. Pingwire

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We like the fact that Pingwire was created by a sleepless coder in about 40 minutes. The result is a simple but effective website for seeing TwitPics uploaded in real-time. In fact, Pingwire became so popular so quickly that it took down TwitPic, so now it is displaying Yfrog images until the issue is fixed.

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2. Twitcaps

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Similar in functironality, Twitcaps displays the most recent images on Twitter, though it comes with a few extra options, including the ability to stop auto-refresh, organizing pics by the most popular, viewing both Yfrog and Twitpics at the same time, and finally, being able to see the tweet and user associated with the picture when you hover over any image.

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3. Picfog

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Picfog () brands itself as realtime image search. Searching for Mashable () turns up mostly relevant results and displays not only how long ago the image was uploaded, but how many retweets the image has received. A very useful visual stream.

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4. Twicsy

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Is Twicsy () technically realtime? No. Is it very useful for finding the most recent Twitpics based on popularity and search keywords? Yes. You can even login via Oauth and tweet out pics you find.

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BONUS: Gimme Shiny!

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If you’re looking for more artistic photographs, Gimme Shiny! will absolutely fulfill that craving. It pulls popular images from devianART, Flickr () and FFFOUND. I could look at this for hours.

So which one’s your favorite?

The team behind a new social networking site called Blackbox Republic is coming out of stealth mode today. They don’t have much to show off yet, since the the social network won’t launch until this fall, but the Portland, Ore., company has $1 million in seed funding, a strong founding team, and above all a cool concept: It wants to build a site where members of the sex positive community can gather.

So, uh, does that mean it’s going to be a social network for sex? Yes and no. Co-founder and Vice President of Community Relations April Donato says that for Blackbox Republic, “sex positive” means “sexuality isn’t an issue,” so the site should be a place where one of the focal points is sex but that isn’t about sex exclusively. One of the company mottos is, “Sex will happen,” i.e., people will have sex as a result of connections made on the site, but that’s not the only point. (Donato also blogs about the sex positive movement.)

Sam Lawrence, the other co-founder and Blackbox Republic’s chief executive, says there are four key components: First, Blackbox Republic has to be a safe space, where people can feel confident that they won’t constantly run into creeps. To ensure that happens, the site will have strong privacy controls, and most of it will be locked off to new members until an existing member vouches for them. Second, there will be an e-commerce component, where people can buy each other gifts; Lawrence promises that gifts will be more valuable and incorporated much more organically than on other social networks. Third, the site will encourage users to “get out from behind your computer,” allowing them to plan get-togethers and coordinate via Blackbox’s mobile site. Finally, it will incorporate event planning and event promotion.

Lawrence, who used to be the chief marketing officer at Jive Software (to see him talk about something a bit less sexy, you can watch this video of his presentation on Productivity 2.0 at the DEMO conference), says Blackbox Republic exists at the intersection of three kinds of sites: Social networks like Facebook, dating sites like Match.com, and e-commerce sites like Amazon.com. But none of those are a good fit for the sex-positive community, he says, because Facebook makes it hard to separate your connections into different groups, so (for example) a Facebook friend from work would see photos of Lawrence dressed in a tutu at the Burning Man event; dating sites are all about finding someone hot and setting up dates with them, rather than creating meaningful interactions on the site; and e-commerce sites are too separate from the rest of your interactions on the web.

As for making money, the site will charge a $25 a month for membership and share the revenue from gifting. In the future, Lawrence says Blackbox Republic plans to license its technology to other companies that want to build community sites, somewhat akin to social network builder Ning.

“You could take these ideas and you could apply them to sports, or to any other community,” he says

I just can’t help it and must post this one… It’s hilarious !!!

Episode 1 :

Two more episodes..

Episode 2 :

Episode 3 :

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