Pearltrees Delivers Real-Time Human Curation of the Web: Feature Updates

Pearltrees, the first human-organized network of interests on the web, unveiled a number of new features today, to manage your own web - instantaneously, in just two clicks.

Users organize their interests and passions on the web using intuitive drag and drop functionality, while discovering new information from people who share common interests.

Client Pearltrees now offers users an experience closer to how humans manage items in real life. For example, the “pearls” in Pearltrees represent the Web content a user finds interesting.

Below is a search that I did on consciousness. The window pop-up on the left shows my results and I can dive deeper into a user's pearls depending on the number of hits they received or more importantly, where my interest interjects with theirs. By clicking on a pearltree, a whole new world opens up for me to devour. I can add some of this user's content to my own, or create new content from what I learn by exploring his pearls and so on.

Much more than just bookmarks, pearls are Web objects that can be manipulated. I find this feature addictive. I can organize pearls by dragging and dropping in just a few clicks and suddenly I have created a "new story." Users also can organize and reorganize accounts instantly without the need to tag and re-tag to keep and retrieve new content.

When users pearl online content, it appears instantly on their pearltree and is visible to all other Pearltrees users. A key component to Pearltrees is that users organize their own web of interests in real time, similar to how we organize information outside of the digital world.

Unlike a traditional social network, users can connect through specific interests, not friends. When users share the same pearl, there is a connection that ensures users have a common interest. By adding another user’s Pearltree or branch to their own Pearltree, a user can follow the topic as curated specifically by that user. AND, continue to follow along or not, depending on the degree of interest.

A few new updates:

**Pearltrees has updated its Firefox and Internet Explorer toolbar plugins to more easily organize the Web directly from the toolbar. Now users can see a hierarchical text image of their pearltree and immediately add a new pearl in its correct place.

**On Pearltrees, everyone’s interests are constantly changing within their own online worlds. To monitor activity and continually discover new content, Pearltrees has established a reporting system that simplifies access to news. This access is now a single click, regardless of the location of new pearls.

**Pearltrees has updated the user interface of the site to make management more visual and ergonomic, creating a smoother and richer experience.

**Updated TwitterSync, allowing for further synchronization and intuitive capabilities with Twitter. TwitterSync automatically pearls URLs tweeted to a user’s pearltree. Now with TwitterSync, users can directly add a tweeted URL to a specific Pearltree branch by adding a hashtag that denotes the correct branch, i.e., #exactnameofthepearltree. The feature also now catches common mistakes such as spaces and spelling and will retrieve the correct pearltree.

Colors of Paris on a Brutally Cold December Week

As always, I took a smattering of photos during my recent trip to Paris; it was much harder this time of year given how brutally cold it was. Blue fingers and all, below are a handful of my favorites.

Montmartre

Between St. Augustine and Germaine des pre

Near Le Louvre

Le Pre Grill on 17 rue Saint-Severin

John Constable in Le Louvre

Which Bank?

Pascal from Opium in St. Germain

Masmoudi Maison de Patisserie - delicacies from Tunisia in the heart of Paris

Mythos Restaurant

The Paris Metro

Ahhhh, the Eiffel Tower on a misty December day

Paris Police in the Latin Quarter

Walking through the Marais

Estel Fogo from Lausanne

Central Paris

How Worldeka Brings Together Charities & Brands Online #tg09

In the press and blogger lounge at LeWeb in Paris earlier this month, I interviewed Worldeka's Sophie Cox who talks to us about how charities and communities can use their service to extend their conversations, their voice and their brand.

Le Digital Photo Frame #tg09

Parrot's designer digital photo frame - a closer look at it as demoed by Parrot's CEO at their offices in Paris in December.

Coworking in Paris: Meet La Cantine #tg09

At Silicon Sentier and La Cantine in Paris, the goal is provide a environment in which to foster ecosystems and have companies collaborate and make projects emerge and happen.

I spent some time there with folks from Invest in France and Cap Digital recently during our Traveling Geeks Paris tour.

Meet Paul Richardet at La Cantine who helped make our event happen.

Says 37 year old engineer Louis Montagne, who's the founder of af83 and Bearstech, as well as the vice president of Silicon Sentier: "We consider that every entrepreneur is a hacker, and that he may need to fulfill what Steven Levy called the "hacker ethic" (sharing, openness, decentralization, free access to computers, world improvement, and pleasure), he needs to have support, to have elder brothers (companies he can tell the stories to explain his project), he needs financing, to be able to fail, he needs to meet with people."

That's basically what they do at La Cantine, which is the co-working space Silicon Sentier created. The group has 150+ members and a number of innovative companies with dynamic projects.

Centrally located, La Cantine has more than 25 events every month, and it has become a meeting point in Paris for technology people, geeks, nerds, hackers, artists, funders, and startups.

How & Why We Look at Art

There's something about the museum experience in Europe that is always different for me than any other museum experience in the world. Sure, part of it is the age and the seriousness of the history that hits you in the face, but there's more.

We have some serious art in a handful of American museums and yet the experience isn't the same partly because you're not viewing the pieces in their historical 'frame.' The building, the people, the energy in the air. None of it exists despite how old the pieces are that hang on its young American walls.

Visiting museums and visiting them often is also not encouraged in the same way it is in Europe. When I lived in Amsterdam, I had a regular pass to get into all the art museums whenever I liked.

It was so inexpensive that I didn't have to think about it....for a moment. A fleeting moment. That's what you want when you want to not just encourage cultural and historical learning, but seed it again and again so it remains with you like a sledgehammer.

The sledgehammer impact is what makes art embedded in a European's life, why they take it more seriously and why it matters to visit the buildings that house such wondrous pieces, not just once, but again and again.

The Hermitage and Le Louvre are two experiences that linger; they stay with you throughout your life. While I've only been to the former once, I tend to make a stop to Le Louvre nearly every time I go to Paris if time allows.

Why? Because the experience matters; its one that draws me in and lingers like an incredible dish that took two weeks to prepare and you still relish twenty years later.

The way I look at art has also changed over the years. We start with what is perfect, as seen by the world. For example, the Impressionists - who doesn't love them? Old Dutch friends used to joke with me that Impressionism was the only period that Americans loved or could resonate with, equating their taste to a popular northern California oaky chardonnay.

Sure, oak and butter in your chard is fabulous indeed, and Kistler remains my favorite. But, what about the more complex choices, where you have to dig for the layers, the layers behind and beyond that take years of tasting, looking, seeing and hearing to truly appreciate?

And so, our tastes change.

What I noticed about this trip was my obsession with paintings from the 1400s and 1500s.

I paid attention to the way the men and women exchanged their love and their duties among each other. To the way children were portrayed. To the colors they used. To the animals that were included or not and when. To the vibrancy of the food. The clothing. The lack of clothing. All of it. Take this one for example....look at the way she looks at him.

Pietro Berrettini dit Pierre de Cortone painted around 1643

A handful of other favorites I spent time with:

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo dit Rosso fior enino painted between 1530 and 1540

Florence around 1483 by Alessandro Filipepi dit Botticelli

Louis (ou Antoine) LE NAIN: La Forge

Antonio Puccio dit Pisanello: Portrait D'Une Jeune Princess, painted between 1435 and 1440

Bernardo Strozzi: Portrait De Jeune Homme around 1635

Ecle Espagnole: La Dame Aux Penses - she was more intense than she may look here

LOVED the energy in this one...

I've always been mesmorized by the Giuseppe Arcimboldo series: L'automne, Le Printemps, L'Hiver and L'Ete painted around 1573.

Jacques-Louis David: Madame Charles-Louis Trudaine around 1791-1792

Ippolito Andreasi dit Landreasino

Part of a much larger piece: romantic, soft, dreamy

And, in all its intensity: Atelier De Giotto: La Crucifixion

Sacha Finkelsztayn for a Yiddish Gastronomic Wonder

I ran across legendary Sacha Finkelsztayn in Paris earlier this month. On a mission to find dark chocolate, my tastebuds found taramasalata, mini baguette-like pastries with poppy seeds and some wondrous looking dumpling instead.

Imagine trying to get a shot of the place without 6,000 people coming in and out of its regularly visited door on a Saturday afternoon close to Christmas. As I stood there with frozen fingers trying to shoot -- and waiting to shoot -- more than one Parisian shouted the word "Impossible" at me.

Progress at last.

The area is old, so this incredibly quaint and adorable shop along Rue Des Rosiers isn't your only surprise, but it's so memorable that it had me longing for another visit days later.

Taglined La Gastronomie Yiddish D'Europe Centrale et Russie, it's a Yiddish gastronomic wonderland.

They have their own beautiful description: "On y retrouve les saveurs et les senteurs qui ont charmé l'enfance de Chagall, Soutine, Freud, ou Woody Allen. On y entend tous les accents des langues d'Europe de l'Est, des Balkans aux pays Baltes, et l'on y croise bien des célébrités du spectacle ou des Arts et Lettres."

It's been standing tall through three generations of Finkelsztajn. The colors, its heritage and the smells bring you in.

The collective experience, including the people who show up -- and stay -- are what keep you there.

It was far too busy to shoot video or do an interview despite the urge to do so. Instead, I hung out in the corner and observed for a long time, while sampling one thing after another.

And, each and every time, I was greeted by this man at the end of the shop who took my money and grinned, because clearly I was a newbie.....clearly I wasn't a local. It was not just the camera that gave it away. The must would have been my awe-stricken face in the corner oohing and aahhing after every bite and then again before the next one.

It's shocking to me that I had never entered its walls, despite my countless visits to Paris over the years, which often included a stroll up and down Rue Des Rosiers. All I can think of is that my priorities must have been different in the past. It's like trying to see the color green on shop signs when you are only looking for blue.

After more than a decade living back in the states, where food is not honored and worshipped as it is in Europe, particularly Paris, I now seek out the best of the best on every trip with a goal of having a gastronomic breakthrough each time. Indeed, a fabulous find.

Action Shots from Traveling Geeks Paris & LeWeb

A number of memorable moments from the Traveling Geeks tour to Paris....below in trains, at meet-ups, tweet-ups, incubators, startups, dinners, and LeWeb.

Beth Blecherman

Jerome Tranie

The Pearltrees team at their Paris' offices

Robin Wauters

Meeting with Orange

David Spark

Eliane Fiolet and Beth Blecherman

Traveling Geeks at Orange offices

In the Paris Metro

Olivier Ezratty

Geeks at the Metro - taken by Scoble

Dancers perform at LeWeb dinner

David Spark, Eliane Fiolet and Dell's Richard Binhammer

Laura Fitton in Green

Parrot's CEO Henri Seydoux paints a colorful picture

Eliane Shoots

Kim-Mai Cutler

Matthew Buckland

Julien Wallen of Pearltrees

Tom Foremski

Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz and Sky Schuyler

Chris Pirillo at LeWeb Speaker Dinner

Ewan Spence

Paul Richardet from La Cantine

Loic and Geraldine LeMeur kick off LeWeb conference at Speaker Dinner

Renee Blodgett at Pearltrees -- okay, so I loved the lights

Kevin Marks

Amazing Dance Performance at LeWeb Dinner

Ben Metcalfe at dinner

Jean-Xtophe Ordonneau in Le Marais

Tara Hunt

Robin Wauters at La Cantine

Violet Blue

Answers.com Bob Rosenschein

Frederic Lardinois in the Paris Metro

Stribe's Kamel Zeroual

Jerome Tranie at Parrot

Chad Hurley on LeWeb stage

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordanr

Robert Scoble

Amanda Rose at Reception Hosted by Paris Mayor at City Hall

Imei Hsu and Chris Pirillo on the steps of Paris City Hall

The Traveling Geeks at Paris City Hall

Kim-Mai Cutler and Matthew Buckland

Vibrant Colors at LeWeb Speaker Dinner

Parrot demo: Sky, Nicolas and Rodrigo look on

Bob Rosenschein, Amanda Coolong and Sky Schuyler in Microsoft BizSpark booth at LeWeb

Nicolas Steeghann from Stupeflix Gives GREAT Demo #tg09

I'm looking forward to doing a custom project with the guys at Stupeflix. The Traveling Geeks met with them in London over the summer; I learned about new features and functionality from him in Paris earlier this month at one of the five incubators housing start-ups in the city.

Urbi on Robotics

Another innovation we saw during the Traveling Geeks tour to Paris was Urbi, robotics software platform and operating system from Gostai, that makes all robots compatible.

Urbi is already compatible with numerous robots on the market, including Nao, Aibo, Spykee or Bioloid, and advanced consumer applications based on Urbi have been demonstrated on the Spykee robot in partnership with mobile phone operators: home surveillance, entertainment for kids, or remote presence.

Gostai's project is to provide a standard environment for robotic applications development and to contribute to the growth of a new industry: service and consumer robotics.

Urbi plans to go open source in May 2010 because there is a clear need and strong trends that calls for an open source OS for robots today.