Just read a great article on Techquila Shots about an idea that allows users to comment on any page on any site, even if that site does not allow comments. I know this basic idea has already been done, but the article delves even deeper into the idea.

What really caught my attention, was how I can implement similar concepts directly into Switchboard. The planned external discussions and discussions from feeds features are a great basis for these ideas, and I will be developing them even further, with help from this article.

It also highlights how Switchboard could implement some great social networking features and really empower users to control their comments across all Switchboards. For example, Switchboard 2.0 will have a new single login that will work with any and all Switchboards. So you will be able to manage and track your comments/posts across all Switchboards. You can also track other users comments/posts, and rate them.

I could go on about the many possibilities of this particular aspect, but I won't. I want at least some surprises for you all. But what do you think? Take a look at the article and let me know your thoughts.

The ever popular and IE beating Firefox browser has just become available as an all new version 2. Althought this is only a release candidate - with the official release due in October - I installed it and found a nice new feature called Microsummaries.

Microsummaries are regularly-updated short summaries of web pages. When you bookmark a web page that has a microsummary, you can choose to display the microsummary as the title of the bookmark. Then, when the page changes, the title will also change, so you can find out the current status of the page just by looking at the bookmark.

So I just knocked up a very quick implementation of Microsummaries for Switchboard. Try it out with yours. Just bookmark your Switchboard in Firefox and you will be given the option to bookmark it using it's Microsummary, which will display the Switchboard's title and the number of new comments.

It's a great way of seeing if your Switchboard has any new comments since you last checked.

You like?

Seeing as Switchboard is ticking along nicely now and we are on top of the bug list, I wanted to give you a brief taster of upcoming features that we are already working on. These should be implemented within the next few weeks.

• External discussions

Using a small piece of javascript code that you place on any page of your site (or any site for that matter) external to SB, your site visitors can comment on that page directly within that page, and without leaving that page. All past and present comments can be displaying inline on the page, and will also be shown on your SB as a new external discussion.

I hope I described that without confusing you all, but we are still grinding out the fine details of this one. But I believe it to be the most exciting.

• Auto created discussions from feeds

By simply adding any valid RSS/ATOM feed link, a discussion will be started on your SB. The starting post will be the feed post. Users of your SB can then replay and post comments on that feed. Then whenever a new item is detected on that feed, a new discussion is created.

• User icons/avatars
• Whispers / private messaing system
• Feedburner integration

PLUS loads more...

If you have any ideas for new or existing features, please post away.

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

As you can see we have gone live with Switchboard and the public beta is now open at http://tooum.com Please signup for your Switchboard. It is free and does not include any ads - for the time being.

If you want to know more about us and Switchboard, please visit our new main site at http://tooum.com

• We want to know what you think!
• We want to know what you want!
• We want to know what you like!
• We want to know what you don't like!

So please tell us so that we can make Tooum and Switchboard even better.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Switchboard is currently running in beta mode, which means that it is not quite perfect - yet! We have opened up the beta to the public to gage interest, collect feedback and remove all known bugs from the system. So we would greatly appreciate your help is doing this, by simply posting you comments, bug reports and feature requests right here.