The CBC 3-part documentary on the challenges posed by amateur and independent publishing and producing on the Web is available from the CBC news site. The End of Radio, The End of TV, and The End of Print are all productions in the spirit of the message - new formats, new views are upsetting the old order. Jian Ghomeshi, parttime host of Sounds Like Canada, is the guide to the new producers of podcasts, guerrilla news, music for iPods, videoblogs, blogs, and digitization projects of books. These are roughly 22 minutes long and are all worth the time. See http://www.cbc.ca/theend/
CBC.CA LAUNCHES TWO NEW SECTIONS: TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, AND CONSUMER LIFE (From the announcement email Aug 23)
CBC.ca has added two new sections: Technology and Science, and Consumer Life.
"Technology & Science looks at the latest advances in science and technology, provides the inside scoop on new gadgets and games, and makes sense of how leading-edge developments will affect your life. News stories, columns and in-depth features will help you keep abreast of developments in the fast-paced science and tech sectors, cutting through the jargon and giving you the information you need in plain language.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/
Consumer Life is a guide to the news and information that savvy Canadian consumers need to know. From retail to e-tail, it's a buyer-beware world out there. How can you tell the knockoffs and snake oil from the real deal? Is a product safe, or has it been recalled? Is the latest thing really something worth spending your hard-earned dollars on? What do the experts recommend? Get the knowledge you need to ask the right questions, avoid the pitfalls, find the bargains and make the smartest deals when shopping around for goods and services. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/ "
Forbes.com Goes Swicki with Eurekster, Online Marketing Blog (Aug 23)
"Eurekster has announced today that their social search product, SwickiPublisher, will be used to create a new vertical search engine feature on the Forbes.com home page via a tab called “Web” and on the search results pages."
Popular Science has one of the better known swickis - a search engine customized to a subject or interest, where the focus can be further refined through the searches done by the user community.
See the Eurekster swicki faq.
Librarians: Are You Ready for Blooks? by Genie Tyburski, Virtual Chase (Aug 24)
Tyburski ahs assembled several articles on the blook. A blook is a book that begins as a blog. A European company has published Tom Reynolds' blog postings about his work as an ambulance worker in London England. The title is Blood, Sweat and Tea and it is being published under a Creative Commons license.
Google Scholar Adds “Related Search” Feature; Let’s See All the Citations, 1000 Limit Remains, ResourceShelf (Aug 22) -- Google's newly announced related search looks very much like how its so-called date search worked - so - no big deal. Also Google still hasn't addressed the limitation to 1000 citations.
Saving Addresses At Google & Yahoo Maps in SEW Blog (Aug 22) -- instructions on how save addresses.
Low-Cost Access to High-End Information by Mary Ellen Bates (July / August 2006) -- Describes several ways one can access, for a fee, the premium databases, and adds to that list Congoo . Once you install the Congoo NetPass toolbar. "you can search both the open web (Congoo uses Yahoo! as its search engine) and its value-added partners, displayed in the search results as "Premium Results." "
CNET Insider Secrets - Save Internet Video by Molly Wood - video show on websites and tools that will help you save videos to your computer - where to go, what to do.
Jaron Lanier got a moment on CBC Sunday Morning. A computer scientist and "digital visonary" living in Berkely, California, Lanier wrote the very controversial Digital Maoism. He does not like what he sees as "online collectivisim", Wikipedia being a prime example, a "hive" mind which is "stupid and boring".
Ed Yourdon, notable years ago for his work in structured programming, entered to his blog, The Yourdon Report, Ongoing debate about Jaron Lanier’s “Digital Maoism” (Aug 19). Here he takes issue with the article and counters by pointing out the "Long Tail" - the numbers of people who fit into the tail of a distribution curve who are not average, who are not choosing what others do. They are not part of the hive mind.
More in Newsweek from Stephen Levy - Poking a Stick Into The 'Hive Mind' To Lanier, the 'wisdom of crowds' delivers a reflection of the lowest common denominator.
"In a recent essay posted on the Web site Edge.org, Lanier disparages the recent spate of efforts that rely on conscious collaboration (like the anyone-can-participate online reference work Wikipedia) or passive polling (the so-called meta sites like Digg, which draw on user response to rank news articles and blog postings). To Lanier, these represent an alarming decision—rejecting individual expression and creativity to become part of a faceless mob. To emphasize the enormity of this movement, Lanier titled his essay with a fearsome moniker: "Digital Maoism.""
Ready for Trial: Exalead Launches Preview Beta of New Version ResourceShelf (Aug 7) - There is a preview version of the new Exalead at http://preview.exalead.com/ (login as beta).
Topix.net Continues to Grow, New Services and Archives ResourceShelf (Aug 9) - review of Topix.net and recent changes. Topix now crawls 50,000 sources.
All Zoho All the Time: A Growing List of Free Web-Based Tools Getting Better (and Growing) ResourceShelf (Aug 13) recommends Zoho.com for web-based tools for word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, polls, planners, web site monitoring. One word - WOW.
New General Search Engine from Convera Debuts: govmine (Not Just Government); Google Maps and Coupons, ResourceShelf (Aug 15)
Convera launched an alternative search engine for searching US government information - govmine. Resourceshelf reviews it in detail.
Peter Morville, author of Ambient Findability, spoke to the Library of Congress on July 20, 2006. The presentation is available in this webcast. Runs for 45 minutes.
"Peter Morville, widely recognized as a founding father of information architecture, discussed his recent book, "Ambient Findability," in a program sponsored by the Science, Technology and Business Division. Morville describes Ambient Findability as a safari of how people search for information and how they now find their way through a world of information overload. His previous book, which he co-authored with Louis Rosenfeld, "Information Architecture" was named "Best Internet Book of 1998." Morville's work has been featured in many publications including Business Week, The Economist, Fortune, MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal. He blogs at findability.org."
Surprising Search Patterns "
A new study questions the common assumption that search engines control the hierarchy of the Internet." By Kate Greene, Technology Review (Aug 18)
The belief the traffic drives popularity and therefore top ranked sites and that as a result there is a "googlearchy" of sites is seriously questioned in a study done at University of Indiana in Bloomington. It showed that typical Web use was a mix of search and surf and that people do find the less popular, trafficked sites. They do so because they use tend to use more complex queries. Findings are tentative.
Art Museums from ResourceShelf (July and August)
ABCNews.com On Yahoo Answers BUT No Mention of Library-Based Virtual Reference Services - Gary Price reminds us that there are library virtual reference services that will be much better than Yahoo Answers. But he doesn't mention that those services may seem stuffy and restrictive compared to the romper room freeforall style of Yahoo Answers.
Spying an intelligent search engine by Stephanie Olsen, CNet (Aug 18)
"While most would agree that Google has set the current standard for Web search, some technologists say even better tools are on the horizon thanks to advances in artificial intelligence."
Medstory applies AI techniques to healthcare. "Rappaport [CEO] won't disclose the secret sauce of the company's technology; however, he said, it's a 24/7 process in computing that connects valuable pieces of information together, such as linking one document that explains symptoms of a disease to another document with analysis of a therapeutic drug for that disease."
AI is also being used at Riya to find photos by matching on characteristics - density, patterns, colours.
Publishers Fight Back Against Google with New Book Search Service, eWeek (Aug 22) -- Publishers are banding together to provide their own book search facility to customers, presumably in competition with Google Books, and Amazon, and anticipating Microsoft. LibreDigital Warehouse will "allow publishers to digitally capture and deliver book content in a controlled context online" At present Harper Collins is the only publisher and it will offer around 200 titles initially.
"Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, said LibreDigital Warehouse would be a way to help authors, distributors and independent booksellers market their titles, while allowing publishers to maintain presentation quality and copyright control."
Browse Inside is done in flash. The Pale Horseman is an example. It's very easy to use but, perhaps this depends on the book, the print is tiny and hard to read. This is done through Newstand.com. There doesn't seem to be a "front door" to books that can be browsed. Harper Collins uses it selectively - it's either available for the book title you have searched or not. All in all - useful for regular searchers of Harper Collins, and other publishers as they join, but not a threat to Google Books.
Farecast.com Now Available From Over 55 Cities Nationwide PRNewswire via Marketwatch (Aug 21)
"Farecast.com, the first and only airfare prediction website, announced today that travelers can now get free airfare predictions from over 55 U.S. cities nationwide, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and Atlanta. Farecast.com will help airfare shoppers across the country save money by answering the question: should you buy now or buy later?"
Study: Women just as comfy with tech, San Diego Union-Tribune (Aug 21)
It's about time someone studied this -- "Women are about as comfortable with the Internet, digital cameras and cell phones as men, according to a survey commissioned by the Oxygen Network that examined how men and women are using the latest gadgetry."
Yahoo Tests Antiphishing Service "New site will let users know if a Yahoo sign-in page is legitimate." Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via PC World (Aug 18)
"Phishing is a monumental online security problem. Scammers set up legitimate-looking Web sites from well-known companies such as banks, online stores, and Web portals, and then try to lure people to them via e-mail and other methods. The idea is to trick people into entering, on these fake sites, sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers; this captured information could then be used for malicious purposes like ID theft and fraud."
The alliance against Google The Economist (Aug 10) -- "What today's internet firms can learn from 19th-century history" -- compares Google to Napoleonic France where its rivals Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft "would look a lot like Russia, Prussia, and Austria". Will they do as Metternich in Prussia did and form an alliance against France?
Microsoft Researchers Inventing New Techniques to Improve Search Engine Accuracy and Relevance --
Papers presented at the 2006 SIGIR conference describe new techniques for analyzing rich patterns of user interactions with search to improve the overall search experience. (Aug 7)
Improving search seem to lie in understanding and anticipating the searcher.
"“Most search engines today use a somewhat two-dimensional approach, matching user queries with the content and link structure of Web pages to return a list of results,” said Eugene Agichtein, a researcher in the Text Mining, Search and Navigation Group within Microsoft Research. “We’re looking at how to add a third dimension — the users themselves — to improve the search experience. By examining click-through and browsing patterns across a large number of users, we are able to learn a great deal about how people interact with search technologies and can thereby improve our accuracy dramatically.”"
Web Search Engines: Part 1 and Part 2 , by David Hawking, Computer - How Things Work (June 2006)
"In this two-part series, we go behind the scenes and explain how this data processing "miracle" is possible. We focus on whole-of-Web search but note that enterprise search tools and portal search interfaces use many of the same data structures and algorithms."
"Part 1 of this two-part series (How Things Work, June 2006, pp. 86-88) described search engine infrastructure and algorithms for crawling the Web. Part 2 reviews the algorithms and data structures required to index 400 terabytes of Web page text and deliver high-quality results in response to hundreds of millions of queries each day."
How To Keep Your Search History Private, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Aug 15)
One tip is to anonymize the search cookie. Firefox users can do this with a Customize Google extension.
Of course, another piece of advice is not use personal search accounts. That would make it impossible to make use of many search aids and conveniences. But at the very least we can take heed to not put personally-identifying information in our searches.
Related article: Has the time finally come to stop using Google? Jack Schofield, Guardian Unlimited (Aug 17) - the reasons why we should be worried and more careful.
Rollyo Rolls On, Powered by the Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo Search Blog (Aug 16)
Yahoo and Rollyo have kinds words to say about each other -- "As the Rollyo FAQ says, "Yahoo provides the engine and Rollyo puts you behind the steering wheel" -- and the new model of the powered-by-Yahoo! Rollyo car handles quite nicely, thank you very much."
Yahoo, Flickr May Share Features - Photo services stay independent, but both will offer image-sharing and tagging features - by Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via PC World (Aug 17)
U.S. users of Yahoo Photos will get new tagging features and a "retooled user interface that functions like a desktop PC application with drag-and-drop functionality.".
Web Searches Go Low-Tech: You Ask, a Person Answers by Yuri Noguchi, Washington Post (Aug 16)
Yahoo's vice president for search products. Eckart Walther, sees Yahoo Answers - people getting answers from volunteers - "as the next generation of search" and considers it "a kind of collective brain -- a searchable database of everything everyone knows".
Yahoo Answers, Prefound, Google Co-op and Google Answers, Prefound - all are examples of a new model of community and social networks. "The new model depends more on the availability of people offering tailored recommendations -- an approach that will make searching for information online a more interactive, personalized and opinionated process, proponents say."
But how reliable and authoritative are they? How often would Walthern turn to Yahoo Answers for important questions? If social search is ever going to be something professionals turn to, there will have to be more screening, and more vetting. I'd like to see public libraries create web centres for asking and answering - and build a social network assisted by information professionals.
Social Networks gaining on Top Portals Compete (Aug 11)
Compete , a Boston-based web-consumer-marketer online-trend analyzing company, posted a blog entry on the explosive growth in traffic to social network sites. "In June, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social networking site." MySpace was far in the lead, but others (in case you're wondering what a social network site looks like) were Blogger.com, YouTube, Classmates, Facebook, Tickle, LiveJournal, Typepad, Evite, and MyYearbook.
I don't think this means that portals like Google and Yahoo will be supplanted. These network places have other purposes. Blogger, Livejournal, Typepad are blogging services. Classmates is for finding people. Tickle is an entertainment site of sorts. YouTube is for sharing videos. These are various forms of social networking.
But it does raise the question - would social networking really work for search?
Compete may be involved with social networking itself. It offers a toolbar that will advise on sites that can be trusted and will suggest sites. It does this by monitoring online activity.
"Compete’s services are based upon the online activity of more than 2 million people (and growing!) who have opted in to share information like the web pages they visit and their attitudes and preferences about products they own. We analyze this information every day to create valuable member services, like the Compete Toolbar and SnapShot, and also insightful research for marketers. Our services increase in value as more people join Compete, so we always strive to find new and interesting ways for people to participate as members."
Casting Net For Better Airfares Wired (Aug 18)
There are two flight comparison sites that help travellers choose the cheapest combination of route, dates, and length of stay.
Flyspy uses data from Northwest Airlines. It shows prices over the next 30 days - adjust the dates and the duration. This is still in alpha - the only city you can leave from is Minneapolis.
Farecast , a Seattle-based operation, will show changes in fare by time and day, and also predict changes in the fare (use Flexible Search to see this). Farecast is limited to departures from Seattle and Boston at present and flies only in the US. Data comes from ITA Software.
"Customers who buy through Farecast are redirected to the appropriate airline website, and the site also allows shoppers to compare prices by departure time, or view a map that displays cheap flights across the country."
The article also describes the revenue managements systems that airlines use that use several factors to set prices and adjust as seats are sold.
AOL Search Queries Open Window Onto Users' Worlds by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post (Aug 17)
Last week AOL accidentally released three months of search logs of queries from 658,000 customers [ FAQ: AOL's Search Gaffe and You, Wired (Aug 11)].
Since then many have been digging into the data to see how and why people search. The Washington Post, as an example, has noted that often the searches are on social security numbers and telephone numbers. This article mentions many parsing projects including one by Paul Boutin - You Are What You Search published in Slate (Aug 11). He created a typology of AOL Search users using analysis through Splunkd.com. He found seven types including the Omnivore who looks for everything.
Chris Sherman has written two more articles about social search (Aug 15 and 16) --
+ What's the Big Deal With Social Search? - quick review of the "history of human mediated search efforts" and then turns to the flaws in the current form of social search - tagging.
+ Who's Who in Social Search - shared online bookmark services, collaborative directories (including Prefound), tag engines, personalized verticals (like Rollyo), social question and answer sites, and "collaborative harvesters" (people tag the sites and others vote).
Intute in the UK (previously RDN) has announced new editions of Web research tutorials in their virtual training suite :
+ Internet Social Worker
+ Internet for Social Policy
+ Internet Economist
+ Internet for Education
"The tutorials recommend key Internet resources for education and research; offer advice on Internet searching, with improved interactive exercises; and have a new section called "Success Stories" to illustrate how the Internet can be used effectively to support education and research in a variety of scenarios ... "
The Intute tutorials are excellent.
Google Buys Company to Boost Photo Management - Neven Vision acquisition expected to bolster portal's Picasa photo management software and service. By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service (Aug 15)
Wonderful -- "Google plans to strengthen its Picasa photo management software and service with the acquisition of Neven Vision, a Santa Monica, California, company specializing in mobile photo search."
New Travel Search Portal Makes World Debut; www.search.travel Delivers Authenticated Results, Business Wire via Marketwatch (Aug 15)
"Consumers now have a quick and easy way to find information about legitimate travel and tourism suppliers online with the introduction of .travel's new vertical search portal, http://www.search.travel ."
This looks like a good idea - travel service providers register in the travel domain. These include government tourist bureaus, hotels, travel operators - the full range. The web site supports parameter search on kinds of lodging, restaurants, transportation, cruises, destinations. Very promising.
Learn more about the domain at http://www.travel.travel/
Which Queries On Yahoo Search Get Redirected To Site Explorer?, SEW Blog (Aug 10) - Some queries that limit the search to site or to link are redirected to Site Explorer, but sound like it isn't consistent. There are examples in the Yahoo Blog. Site Explorer has some features useful to webmasters - requires login.
Internet a daily habit for most Canadians, CBC (Aug 15)
The Canadian Internet Use Survey from Statistics Canada shows that roughly two-thirds of Canadians (16.8 million adults) connect to the Internet at home. Women and men use the Internet in equal numbers but there are differences in how they use it: "... with women more likely to seek out health or medical information and men more likely to access government websites." Usage is lower in the country - only 58% connect from home.
+ 91% of households with internet do email.
+ 84% browse
+ 67% check the weather or road conditions
+ 63% make travel bookings
Google Tests Blogger Upgrade by Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via PC World (Aug 15)
"Google has started testing an enhanced version of its popular Blogger blog publishing service [Blogger.com] , adding long-awaited features such as the ability to categorize entries with labels, to control access to blogs, and to make layout changes by dragging and dropping."
These changes aren't rolled out. Go to https://beta.blogger.com/start to become a beta user.
Time lists 50 'coolest websites', BBC News (Aug 15)
"Video website YouTube and social networking site MySpace are among the 50 "coolest websites" of the year as chosen by US magazine Time."
"Many of the websites chosen for 2006 are examples of so-called web 2.0 sites, which give users tools to create and share content online.
They are "next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips," wrote Maryanne Murray-Buechner. "
Commenters to the post in the UK have added sites that they like.
See the complete list by Time of 50 Coolest Websites 2006. Go soon - this is likely archived after 1 week.
Categories include:
# Entertainment, Arts and Media
# Shopping, Lifestyles and Hobbies
# News and Information
# Staying Connected
# Time Wasters
# Travel and Real Estate
# Web Search and Services
# 25 Sites We Can't Live Without
Google removes text link to Froogle AP via Globe and Mail (Aug 14) -- Google.com replaced its link to the comparison shopper Froogle with one to Google Video where all the heat is these days. John Battelle opined that ""The fact is that YouTube is hot, video is hot, and there's a lot of money projected to be shifted from video advertising on TV to video advertising on the Web ... ""
Google Book Search Adds Big, Brave Partner: The University of California by Barbara Quint, Newbreaks (Aug 14)
"The 100 libraries on the 10 campuses of the University of California (UC) —the largest research and academic library in the world—opened a composite 34 million book collection to Google. In making the announcement, UC clearly indicated its intention to go all the way and include in-copyright materials in its contribution, even though the Google Book Search project already faces two major lawsuits from publishers and authors challenging its legality."
Google's Digital Library of Alexandria, Google Operating System (Aug 13) -- reviews the story of Google's desire to build a book search engine.
Finding your search buddies by John Battelle (Aug 3) -- OthersOnline is a new social search service to help connect you with others online who appear interested in the same search or site. Hmmm - wonder what this will lead to?
New Reference Smart Answers from Ask.com Offer Comparison Pricing for Books and This Day in History Info, REsourceShelf (Aug 2) -- Ask.com recognizes ISBN numbers for finding books, and knows what happened on this day thanks to Infoplease. Type in this day in history to find out.
Omgili, a new discussion forum search engine, Pandia (Aug 11)
"Omgili is a search engine designed to index web-based discussion boards. "
"Omgili’s Crawlers recognize board software such as phpBB, VBulletin, YaBB, SMF, Invision, Snitz and FuseTalk. However, other forums may also be included."
Convenient search features from Rollyo Pandia Post ( Aug 11 ) -- Describes new features added to Rollyo, the handy make-your-own search engine that draws from Yahoo. Also mentions the new Yahoo Search Builder and Eurekster's Swicki as alternatives.
Yellow Pages to buy Allstream directories, CP via Toronto Star (Aug 14)
YellowPages Group is buying the Winnipeg based MTS Allstream directories.
"Yellow Pages Group is Canada's largest telephone directories publisher with more than 330 Yellow Pages and residential directories.
The company also owns and manages online directories YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca,, as well as CanadaPlus.ca, a network of seven local city sites."
AllRecipes.com’s Ingredient Search and Recipe Time Search, ResourceShelf (Aug 10) - what a good idea - find a recipe that will use up those leftovers. <b>All Recipes has it.
WorldCat Beta is here. Search for titles in 10,000 libraries. This is the union catalog we could only dream of 10 years ago. It works. I searched for May, Nuala and found The Story of Chicago May by Nuala O'Faolain in the Toronto Public Library. Search for books, sound recordings, videos and other formats.
"This Web site lets you find an item of interest and then locate a library near you that owns it. WorldCat search results usually link you directly to the item record on the library's Web site, and often point to the library's other online services, including "Ask a Librarian." The library's Web site may allow you to join a waiting list, reserve an item, check it out and even have it shipped or delivered. These services will vary from one library to another, and a login associated with an active library membership is commonly required to use them."
You can also buy books at WorldCat through Baker and Taylor in a transaction that will also help your local library.
Exalead Beta by Phil Bradley (Aug 8) -- Exalead is redesigning the interface to its search engine. Bradley's review is generally favourable -- "Web searching also looks rather different now, and much less cluttered. " Less clutter would be good. There is no information on when this will be available to the public. Part of the redesign might be related to growing the database to 8 billion pages.
Yahoo News Gains Search Engine News Market Share, SEW Blog (Aug 8) -- According to Comscore , in June 2006 Yahoo News received 33% of news traffic, followed by MSNBC, and AOL. Google News didn't make it to the top 10.
Social Search Overview: Yahoo!, Windows Live & Eurekster, Search Engine Roundtable (Aug 7) - report from a session at the Search Engines Strategies 2006 conference moderated by Chris Sherman on social search. It's quite an overview of the growth, the types, and the limitations. Speakers from Eurekster, Windows Live and Yahoo weighed in on what they are doing.
Yahoo announced Yahoo Search Builder which individuals can use to add a personal search engine to a web site to search that site, the Web (through site searches at Yahoo), or Yahoo news. There is some resemblance to Rollyo without the social aspect of a directory to user-created combinations.
YurNet.com is a new metasearch engine with several search options for different kinds of queries.
There is a plain Web metasearch against Google, Yahoo!, MSN, WiseNut, Altavista, ODP and some others. This has some viewing options to provide summary, show sources, and group results. 'Find more like this" creates a new query based on your chosen result. It also appears to handle the Boolean OR and compound queries reasonably well. - to exclude terms works better than NOT.
Even better is the comparison page where you may choose three engines from groupings for Web (which includes Yurnet itself), Images, Video, Blog, News or Resources, and see the results displayed in three panes.
The Internet Toolbox offers choices for Whois / domain searches at Alexa and others.
'Search terms quickly' under Specialty Search seems rather magical in its ability to match the query with a suitable source. A search on findability tagging goes to Del.icio.us - a tagging centre. Quicktime troubleshooting goes directly to a page at Apple. Other choices under Specialty Search will look for answers (from Ask.com and Brainboost), get weather, check eBay and several other vertical slices.
So many metasearch engines are just another excuse to show ads. But YurNet shows results and would be a good first choice for breadth and versatility. Follow development at the YurNet blog.
Amazon Launches User-Generated 'Search Suggestions' By Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com (August 07, 2006)
"Amazon.com is allowing users to submit search suggestions for products listed on the site. This allows Amazon's search engine to find items for sale relevant to terms entered by shoppers when those terms don't appear in the product details."
Del.icio.us Adds A Couple New Features ResearchBuzz (Aug 8) - new feature for networks and active users of a tag.
Get Some Google Help in Research Buzz (July 29) -- points to Google's new help page -- http://www.google.com/support
blinkx to Enhance Search Technology on StudyBuddy.com, a New AOL K-12 Web Site Built for Homework "From Modern Science to Ancient History, blinkx's Unique Technology Will Help Students Explore the Web", PRNewswire via Marketwatch (Aug 12)
"blinkx's search technology will power AOL's new educational portal, giving students and their parents easy access to millions of relevant educational content. Visitors to StudyBuddy.com will enjoy "Search Enhanced by blinkx." In action, blinkx will allow students of all ages to quickly access all forms of educational content that bring history, science, art, math and literature to life, including short documentaries, special features and lectures -- making homework interactive and fun."
Google eyes bigger Canadian office by Simon Avery, Globe and Mail (Aug 6)
Google is aiming to grow an R&D staff of 100 to 200 people in Southern Ontario.
Yahoo Canada unveils slicker, feature-rich home page By: Joaquim P. Menezes, IT World Canada (03 Aug 2006)
Yahoo Canada has a new home page -- "The Web media giant says its new Canadian homepage was created as part of "the most comprehensive redesign in the company's history," signifying this operation was far more than a facelift."
Indeed it does. Yahoo really looks like a portal and community centre now - hardly even a remnant of its time as a search centre.
Google Maps Adds Saved Locations, Search Engine Journal (Aug 4)
"Google Maps has added a new personalized feature which saves the addresses of businesses and locations users search for using Google’s local mapping and directions service."
New Google Feature Flags Dangerous Sites for Users "Alert page warns of possible risks from malicious sites."
Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via PC World (Aug)
"When users attempt to click over to a Web site considered to be potentially dangerous, Google shows users an alert page that informs them of the possible risk and gives them the option to click back to the results page or continue on to the questionable Web site."
Windows Live suffering from 'paralysis,' says Microsoft Ex, The Register (Aug 9)
Trouble in Microsoftland with plans for Windows Live. Niall Kennedy, formerly with Technorati, quit and in leaving had a few things to say -- "Kennedy is leaving Microsoft to run his own company and has fingered a combination of bureaucratic inertia, attention defecit disorder and budget cuts at Microsoft as extra motivation for fleeing. He said there was a tightening of the corporate belt after Microsoft took a bashing from Wall Street earlier this year when it revealed a massive $2bn spending program to catch up to Google and others."
Lycos Revamps Free Webmail Service "Lycos Mail now offers 3GB of storage and the ability to send file attachments of any size." Juan Carlos Perez, PCWOrld (August 02, 2006)
Compares Lycos to Yahoo, MSN, and Google.
Google picked as MySpace's search partner, Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Aug 7) - that's it - Google won the race to team up with MySpace.
Podcasting Made Even Easier by Linda L. Briggs, Campus Technology (June 21, 2006 ) - software recommendations for making podcasts.
Online Video Growth to Continue by ENid Burns, Clickz (Aug 3)
A new report from In-Stat sees increased demand for video that will give content aggregators and portals more revenue generating opportunities.
"Content aggregators, including portals like AOL, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, and providers like Apple, are in the early stages of providing video services. "The worldwide market for online content services is expected to expand by a factor of 10, growing from about 13 million households during 2005 to over 131 million households by 2010," said the report."
NewsGator Announces Podcasts for Yahoo! Messenger, Econtent (Aug 4)
"NewsGator Technologies, Inc., an RSS platform company, has announced a new RSS plug-in for the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice real-time communications suite. NewsGator for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice allows users to access audio and video podcasts as well as other content from around the web through an IM interface."
Search Tools for Air Travelers by Chris Sherman, SearchDay (Aug 2)
Chris Sherman has tips for air travellers - "These sites aren't travel search or agency sites that help you find and make bookings; rather, they're ancillary tools that can help you make better decisions, save time and so on."
Lycos Revamps Email Offering, SEW Blog (Aug 3)
"Lycos mail has been revamped. Storage has been increased to 3 gigabytes (up from 5 megabytes) and file attachments of any size are now allowed."
Rollyo Adds More Functionality, SEW blog (Aug 3) Rollyo is great for creating your own little search engine on a topic that will search Yahoo's pages of your selected sites. Now it has more to offer.
"They've improved layout, added blog search, added the ability to take an existing Searchroll and edit it to your own taste and added a 'Rollbar'."
New program allows on-line book browsing, AP via Globe and Mail (AUg 3)
"HarperCollins, which announced last year that it was digitizing its vast catalogue, has set up a Browse Inside program that will allow readers worldwide to view on-line excerpts from books by Michael Crichton, Isabel Allende and several other writers."
What is Statscan thinking? by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail - Cyberia Blog (Aug 3)
"Statistics Canada dropped a non-bombshell this week. A respected organization, Statscan announced in a study that "heavy" Canadian users of the Internet -- those who spend more than an hour a day on the Internet -- devote less time to socializing with their spouses and children and less time doing household chores."
One hour a day - that's hardly time to check email and get the weather!
Prolific Canadian is king of Wikipedia "With more than 80,000 articles under his belt, Ottawa man is the on-line resource's busiest contributor" by Alexandra Shimo, Globe and Mail (AUg 4)
Simon Pulsifer, a recent graduate of the University of Toronto, is devoted to the continuance and quality of Wikipedia. He has posted 2 to 3 thousand new articles - "Mr. Pulsifer's thousands of articles cover a broad variety of topics, including Canadian and U.S. history, international and Canadian politics, economics and current affairs. He has written featured articles, those profiled on Wikipedia's opening page, on the military history of Canada, the Italian Renaissance, the Marshall Plan, the economy of Africa, the history of Central Asia, among others." - and edited some 78,000. Of interest - his mother is a librarian.
There are some new words in this article - Wikipedians (people who post and edit), Wikipediholism (addicted to being a Wikipedian), and editcountitis (addicted to editing).
Google Earth impacts science United Press International (Aug 1)
Scientists are using Google Earth for "such widely differing functions as tracking diminishing ice sheets, locating crime scenes and monitoring volcanoes".
How the Web Was Won by Leslie Walker, Washington Post (Aug 3)
Leslie Walker picks out the themes of the story of the Web over the past eight years. Community in its various forms from DejaNews to today's MySpace is one. That we're all media producers now is another. E-commerce has grown dramatically and changed retail. To her the most fascinating story "how people took to the Internet to create and share information . In the past year, thousands of new Web communities have popped up offering twists on MySpace and YouTube."
This was Leslie Walker's last column. I'll miss her observations and analysis of the Web scene.
Yahoo Launches Messenger 8 With 180 Plugins , Tech Crunch (Jul 28) Yahoo Messenger Version 8 has plugins for sharing files, sending cards (people do this while chatting!), using iTunes, and, perhaps more productively, interactively make diagrams and flowcharts.
Tips & Tweaks: Be Less Annoying "Tips for writing e-mail that actually gets read; plus, a doozy of a puzzle". Steve Bass, PC World (Aug 2) - advice to people on "how to stop being obnoxious with your e-mail."
Real Player Bundles Firefox And Google Software, Google Operating System (Aug 2)
"Forbes reports that RealNetworks, the creators of the (un)popular media player RealPlayer, have signed a two-year agreement with Mozilla to bundle Firefox with its software (RealPlayer, Rhapsody and RealArcade). They've also signed a contract with Google to distribute Google Toolbar and Google Desktop."
Collections Canada has added the digital book, Codex Canadiensis. This features an illustrated manuscript (ca.1700) by Louis Nicolas about the flora, fauna and peoples of early America. This is a joint project of Library and Archives Canada, Gilcrease Museum and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art.
HTML version works better than Flash (which seems to have some blank pages).
Best sites for students By Julie Wildhaber, CNEt (Jul 28) -- 10 sites that CNet thinks will enhance a college student's experience. Sites are online tools and lifestyle choices rather reference resources (except for Bartleby).
Merriam-Webster Selects Healthline to Deliver Medical Information Resources to Millions of Health Seekers -- Healthline's Exclusive Online Search and Navigation Capability Outperforms Conventional Health Searches With Precise, Medically Relevant and Reliable Content -- Marketwire via Marketwatch (Aug 1)
"Close on the heels of winning the 2006 Webby Awards' People's Voice Award for Best Health Web Site, Healthline Networks ( www.healthline.com) today announced it has been chosen by Merriam-Webster to enhance its leading language reference website with contextually relevant medical information and resource links whenever consumers look up health-related words on Merriam-Webster OnLine ( www.merriam-webster.com)."
New Internet Technology Challenges Yahoo Toolbar Dominance
Feature-packed Online Tool Puts Best of the Internet at User's Fingertips - PRNewswire via Marketwatch (Aug 2)
Keep in mind that this is a press release -- "The Advanced Searchbar located at http://www.advancedsearchbar.com , places the best of the Internet directly at the users' fingertips, providing users with more features than the Yahoo! and Google toolbars combined. Offering the ability to search the Internet using over 100 different search engines, the Advanced Searchbar combines the functionality of different Internet searching tools with the ease-of-use and convenience of a one-click online remote control, creating a unique, all- inclusive toolbar that is considered a digital "Swiss Army Knife."
Small Biz Unplugged - new Canadian weblog sponsored by D&B Canada. Greg Balanko-Dickson is the chief blogger. Topics are to i"nclude everything a small business owner in Canada would be dealing with", such as "taxes, financing, business planning, expansion, startup, blogging, succession planning, marketing, cash flow management and managing human resources to name a few".
AOL Previews One-Stop Video Portal, Adotas (July 31)
"This week, AOL will be launching a beta version of the AOL Video portal. The portal, available at www.aolvideo.com, allows users to find, watch, and share millions of videos across the Web."
Print Not Dead Yet: Shift to Getting News Online Has Slowed , AP via E&P (July 30)
"Almost three in 10 adults, or 31 percent, regularly log in for news, a rate roughly the same as two years ago, according to the survey released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. People in their 40s were more likely to go online for news than the younger adults."
E-Books: Why They Matter for Distance Education—and How They Could Get Much Better by David Rothman, Innovate (Aug/Sep 2006)
"In his assessment of the current state of e-book technology, David Rothman illustrates the value of e-books for educators, accounts for why the technology has not been more widely embraced, and discusses new developments that suggest a better future for e-books. "
Virtual Reference in the Age of Pop-Up Blockers, Firewalls, and Service Pack 2 By Pascal Lupien, Online (Jul/Aug 2006)
"Real-time virtual reference (VR) has been around for several years. Although it has become standard in our libraries and widely discussed in the professional literature, the evidence indicates that libraries are not satisfied with the service. Usage statistics have been disappointing; frustration levels with the technology remain high." Why? Too many technical problems.
Video enablers I've noticed - Commentary: It's about mash-ups, control, incentives, by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Aug 1)
This is the year that will be remembered for online video. Francisco names several trends including "YouTube is one of the fastest-growing Web sites, drawing 100 million views a day. Akamai Technologies, which helps deliver online video, has watched its shares surge 90% this year. Limelight, a private version of Akamai, is seeing sales grow 40% year-over-year, reflecting its growing client base of publishers and producers who want to deliver video and need technology to help deliver it faster and cheaper. "
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