September, 2006 Archives | Homepage

Del.icio.us Reaches 1 Million User Mark

Del.icio.us blogs that Del.icio.us has reached the 1 million user mark shortly after passing its third birthday.

Not even a week after turning three, del.icio.us has just passed the mark of 1 million registered users! That's more than triple the number of users we had just nine months ago. We can hardly believe it ourselves (although the smell of smoke coming from the server rack seems to eerily confirm it). Thanks to each and every one of you for making all this possible. Now we have one more thing to celebrate at the party next week...

Quick Online Tips has more about the Del.icio.us milestones.

Posted on September 27, 2006
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Google Has the Most Dead Pages

Google is the leader is dead and old pages according to a study cited by Google Operating System.

Ziv Bar-Yossef, from Google, wrote a paper about sampling random pages from a search engine's index using queries. He explains some of the technical details in this video, including the utility of sampling random pages: comparing search engines, estimating the amount of spam, of fresh results etc.

He applied the results from his paper and compared Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. Here are three charts that show a comparison of the index size, how many dead pages are in each search engine and how fresh the results are. The charts are only an estimation, and they have a bias of around 10%. As you can see, Google doesn't do very well.

Ziv Bar-Yossef found that about 2% of Google's pages were dead pages compared to less than 1% for MSN and Yahoo. Sometimes dead pages can contain useful information -- such as the cached pages of a site that has been removed -- so it isn't always a bad thing to store dead pages. (via Search Engine Watch)

Posted on September 25, 2006
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AJAX Start Pages List

Listable has a moving list of Ajax-based start pages. These are start pages like Netvibes that let you create a homepage and populated with feeds and other content. The current list includes the following start pages.

(via Lifehack)

Posted on September 23, 2006
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New Web2.0 Directory Launches

Go2web2.0 is a great new directory of all the Web2.0 applications. The directory displays a pages of Web2.0 logos. You simply click on the logo to find out more about each Web2.0 application. You can also sort the directory by tags or search for a specific listing.

Go2web20 is an application that builds for users to have easy access to Web 2.0 services. Services in Web 2.0 are defiantly putting accentuation on their company logo design what makes it easier to remember what the service is all about by looking at the logo.

Simply click the logo and read some information about the service you choose (on the right sidebar) then click the link to access the site or read more reviews about it from the blogsphere (technorati) that will appear below. Perform your search by tags or free text.

The blog for Go2web2.0 can be found here. (via Somewhat Frank)

Posted on September 20, 2006
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Broadband Via Natural Gas Pipes?

USA Today reports that a company called Nethercomm wants to deliver broadband using natural gas pipes using Broadband-in-Gas technologies.

Now the relentless pursuit for faster, cheaper broadband is leading to perhaps the last unclaimed conduit to your house: natural gas pipes.

Nethercomm, a San Diego-area start-up, says it has developed technology to send lightning-fast broadband and TV services via wireless signals through the pipes that deliver the fuel used to heat homes and fire up stoves.

Gas pipes serve 62% of U.S. households, says the American Gas Association. Broadband in Gas, or BIG, could give consumers a third high-speed option at low costs and speeds that far surpass today's phone and cable offerings. It also could bring fast Internet to unserved rural areas. But, so far, the idea has been met with both excitement and skepticism.

Some are calling it a "pipe dream" while others think the idea could work. Here is how the concept would work.

Broadband in Gas would require installation of an ultrawideband transmitter that's linked to an Internet backbone or pay-TV facility at a gas company's network hub. A receiver would be placed at a customer's gas meter. Build-out costs are about $200 per household, Nethercomm says. By contrast, broadband over power lines costs about $600 per household, while phone and cable TV networks each cost well over $1,000 per home to build, says West Technology Research Solutions.

If it provides cheap super-fast broadband connections there will be consumer interest.

Posted on September 14, 2006
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200 Years of News at Google

The BBC reports that Google has added a feature to Google News that lets people search 200 years worth of news archives.

The web-based tool allows users to explore existing digitised newspaper articles spanning the last 200 years and more recent online content.

People using the search are shown results from both free and subscription-based news outlets.

Partners in the project include the websites of US newspaper the New York Times and the Guardian from the UK.

Other sources include news aggregators, websites which collect and display news stories from multiple sources.

The search results for the archives can be opened as regular search results or as a timeline of events. For example, see the timeline results for searches for these famous people:

Robert Frost

Michael Jordan

Winston Churchill

Posted on September 12, 2006
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Surfing the Web With Brainwaves

Business 2.0 reports that new technology similar to technology that lets a quadriplegic man play video games could allow people to surf the Internet with their mind.

Two years ago, a quadriplegic man started playing video games using his brain as a controller. That may just sound like fun and games for the unfortunate, but really, it spells the beginning of a radical change in how we interact with computers - and business will never be the same.

Someday, keyboards and computer mice will be remembered only as medieval-style torture devices for the wrists. All work - emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches - will be performed by mind control.

If you think that's mind-blowing, try to wrap your head around the sensational research that's been done on the brain of one Matthew Nagle by scientists at Brown University and three other institutions, in collaboration with Foxborough, Mass.-based company Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. The research was published for the first time last week in the British science journal Nature.

Nagle, a 26-year-old quadriplegic, was hooked up to a computer via an implant smaller than an aspirin that sits on top of his brain and reads electrical patterns. Using that technology, he learned how to move a cursor around a screen, play simple games, control a robotic arm, and even - couch potatoes, prepare to gasp in awe - turn his brain into a TV remote control. All while chatting amiably with the researchers. He even learned how to perform these tasks in less time than the average PC owner spends installing Microsoft Windows.

The Business 2.0 article says the Neurodevices industry is already a $3.4 billion industry. These companies continue to look for new ways to help people compensate for brain, nerve and spinal column damage. Eventually they will have a device that makes it easy to surf the Internet using your mind. It will probably come with Internet Explorer and/or a Google toolbar pre-installed.

Posted on September 8, 2006
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Ask.com Rolls Out Emoticon Search

Ask.com blogs that they will now return an explanation for emotion searches like :) and :D. They will also help readers searching for LOL and ROFL.

For a long time people have wanted the ability to search for terms and phrases on the web using non-letter (A-Z) characters. Put another way, searching using non-alphanumeric characters.

Well the time has come here at Ask.com and we've started to roll-out some what we hope are useful and practical examples.

We now offer a growing list of emoticons (aka smileys) that can be found by simply typing the smiley into the search box. Look for the definition in a Smart Answer box at the top of web results page.

Here are some examples. (Note: We hope our readers already know the meanings of these examples).

:-/

BRB

LOL

ROTFL

Posted on September 5, 2006
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