OpenHeatMap is a service designed to make it easy for non-specialists to create maps communicating information. OpenHeatMap is a simple tool that takes your Excel, CSV file or Google Docs spreadsheet with Geo data and creates a heat map out of it. You can then share that map online, a bit like YouTube for geographic visualizations.

Any dataset linked to geographic coordinates (house prices, election results, mortality rates, etc.) can be mapped out on OpenHeatMap. Once you’ve imported your data you can tweak the color sets, heat mapping style, and share the heat map by embedding it in your website or sharing a link to it. The tool functions well with both Flash and HTML5 and lets you share them easily via email, Facebook or Twitter. You can also use the tool to search Twitter and visualize the results on a map

When you have a story you want to tell,  Maps are a really compelling way to communicate complex information, and if you have a spreadsheet OpenHeatMap will help you build your own. OpenHeatMap is a free service.

PikiFriends is a new kind of educational networking ‘penpal’ tool. The main goals of PikiFriends are to improve English communication skills (no matter what level English speaker you are) and to teach good ‘Netiquette’ practices. Jeff Dionne “created PikiFriends because there were no social media tools out there which combined safety, ease of use, great design, had assessable tools for teachers, international exchanges, with a community of secondary school folks only”.

To join the community, Pikifriends verifies both teachers and students as a safety precaution, and is constantly monitored. Monitored by teachers, students communicate with each other by asking questions, sending notes, or posting a blog. Pikifriends attracts students because it is not strictly school, as it should not be, because it occurs outside the classroom. Students gain a hands on experience interacting with different cultures, which is a great benefit to social studies and history courses, and helps students maintain an enthusiastic approach to their studies in general.

As a service, PikiFriends is free to accredited secondary schools, and it is meant to remain like that. Some premium features might be implemented later on.

Clicker.com is an Internet television site that is equal parts search engine, entertainment guide and directory all roll into one. Clicker Social gives users the ability to join forces to discover what’s worth watching, from sharing playlists, to recommending and discussing shows, to telling their social circle what they’re watching right now. Clicker.com is now available on the App Store for free. With Clicker’s app, you’re really downloading the packaging. It doesn’t do anything you couldn’t do on your iPhone already, it just combines those functions into one wrapper and adds some social sharing features.

The app draws its strength from Clicker’s vast database of free videos and podcasts from popular sites like Diggnation, YouTube, The Onion, Break, Revision3, TED, Break, NPR, and CNN. The app allows users to search, watch and discuss 1,800 web shows (there are about 200,000 episodes in all), and download and watch 12,000 additional shows from iTunes — though you could obviously do that last part on your iPhone already.

Clicker’s a free app for Boxee, and you can install it by heading to the App Box in the left-hand menu. Based in Los Angeles, Calif., Clicker is funded by Benchmark Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Allen & Company, JAFCO Ventures and Qualcomm Investments.