Intel Introduces “Cool Software” Social Networking Site

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Today, October 8, Intel launched a new Web 2.0-inspired Web site to solicit information and feedback from the public on software companies and technologies. Similar to Digg, it offers a forum where people can submit and vote for their favorite software company or product. The idea is to bring to Intel’s attention those technologies the company might most be interested in.

Last week, I was given a chance to check out the site, login and also, speak to some of those involved. I spoke to:

• Steve Santamaria, Director, Global Software Enabling, Intel’s Software and Solutions Group
• David McKinney, Innovation Accelerator Manager, Intel’s Software and Solutions Group , and
• Kelly Feller, Communications & Product marketing manager, GSE, Intel’s Software and Solutions Group

I have to thank them for giving me the chance to pre-register with the site and look around, as well as for taking the opportunity to answer my questions.

You can go to the site at http://coolsw.intel.com/, register, set up an account and start submitting stories, sites, etc. They are most interested in software companies, but they are also interested in technologies in general.

The site has the following categories: Digital Home, Mobility, Enterprise, and Healthcare which are, of course, the same as the various “platforms” Intel supports. There’s also an Other category, naturally.

Much like Digg, you can vote up a story, or “bury” it. I noticed though, that once you vote for a story, you can’t retract the vote. In fact, I was wondering if I could “bury” a story I had accidentally voted for, thus negating the “for” vote, but the bury link disappeared once I voted for a story. Consider this a feature request, Intel!

I also found a couple of bugs, which I already reported to them. For example, when I tried to register, if I tried to use a username that wasn’t the same as my email address (there’s a checkbox for this), it gave me an error every time. Minor, but you are likely to find other minor bugs as you use the site.

This site’s been in use internally at Intel for some time, and they are expanding it externally to get more input. While this shows that they have already found it to be successful, they are likely to start seeing spam stories, as well as people posting stories from their own blogs (which isn’t necessarly a bad thing, BTW, even if some sites such as Propeller frown upon what they call being the Middleman in a story).

I’d recommend that you take a look at the site. Give it a chance, and lets hope they can keep the spam and off-topic posts under control.