Google Wave: 5 Ways It Could Change the Web

Google Wave arrives on September 30th. On that day, Google (Google) will start sending out 100,000 invites to non-developers to its much-anticipated real-time communication platform.

It’s not even released and it’s generating more hype than almost any other web product in recent memory. The reason stems from its game-changing features and their potential applications on business, education, customer service, email, social networking, and more.

So with Wave on the way, we wanted to explore some of the potential of Google’s upcoming product. We have a few of our own ideas and included some from Google Wave (Google Wave) developers, but more than anything, we want your ideas, so be sure to leave your great Google Wave invention in the comments! Who knows, maybe we’ll feature them in the future!

1. Wave-Powered Forums

This idea’s actually been in my head before, but it’s articulated with some depth by Andrew Camel in the Google Wave API Google Group:


“So I thought that it would be an awesome feature of google wave to have it power a forum. Each thread, instead of being multiple different posts, it would just be a google wave. So, instead of having to try a discussion by posting and going back to the page and checking for new replies and while you were posting, you missed a new part of the discussion, you can post like you are having an instant-message session and you can also save the posts like forum threads. I really think that this would be a great use of the google wave api.”

Real-time threads? Saving waves like forum threads? Google Wave?! Sign us up!

2. Wave-powered Commenting System

wave photo sharing image

We actually alluded to this possibility in our Google Wave Guide when we discussed Wave Embeds:


“One possibility: Google Wave Embeds may be a real-time replacement to static comments. If Google perfects wave embeds, you could even see YouTube (YouTube).com comments replaced with waves, although it is way too early to make any calls on the potential of this.”

Now that we’ve had some time to play with Wave, we think more than ever that Wave as a commenting system is a real possibility. Each blog post or YouTube video could have a new wave, where users could converse about practically anything in real-time. Anybody who comes in late can just play back the wave and get up to speed. It could be a whole new era for commenting.

3. Wave-Based Content Management System

A thread in the API group discusses the possibility of using Wave as a project management system. I’ll be honest – even I’ve been toying with this idea. Here’s what Jason Salas said in the thread:

I think that maybe many of the major CMS vendors will create extensions (if we don’t do it ourselves) to integrate their products with Wave. That’s what I’m working on now. But that is a neat idea to actually use Wave as its own CMS platform, with assumed features
like document creation/management, scheduling, RSS feeds, (micro) blogging, archival/search, etc.”

Can’t you see it?

4. Wave for Customer Support


This idea actually comes from a thread in the Google Wave development preview titled “What Will You Use it For?” It’s a remarkable discussion and brainstorming session over the potential of wave. One of the most fleshed-out ideas in the thread, though, is Wave for customer support. Here are some of the bullet-points for how Wave could be used in customer support:

- Sending trouble tickets
- Incident tracking can be a wave
- Call center analytics gadget
- Distribution list gadget
- Customer meta-data gadget
- Surveys can be a wave

Real-time customer support? Yeah, someone please build that.

5. Wave for Education

We reported a few days ago that Google is giving some schools and businesses an early look at Google Wave. But why? What could Wave possibly accomplish in the realm of education and business? A lot, we firmly believe.



I refer once again to the “What Will You Use it For?” Wave in the dev preview for some ideas for how Wave can be used in education.

- Building a more interactive / creative learning environment
- Proofreading / writing papers
- Brainstorming potential project ideas
- Interactive tutoring from home
- Collaborative Environment for Cyber Schooling

With more widgets, you could embed streams and communicate with professors in real-time. We’re excited about Wave’s potential to transform education.
What Are Your Ideas?


We’ve highlighted some of our ideas and many ideas from enthusiasts across the web. So now it’s your turn. What is your idea for Google Wave? We want to hear your thoughts and your opinions in the comments.

Oh, and if you need a little inspiration for your idea, be sure to check out our comprehensive Google Wave coverage:

Mobile Melodies: Top 10 Musical Performances on Cellphones

September 5th, 2009 | by Barb DybwadComments

iphone-concert-260There’s a lot of creative energy out there. And we live in a world now where tools to help us express those creative energies can live right in our pockets.

It’s in the spirit of celebrating this marvelous age that we bring you this collection of mobile music performances. All of the music here is being generated by a cell phone — think about that for a minute!

While most (but not all) of these performances are on the Apple iPhone, we hope to see some AndroidAndroidAndroid orchestras sprouting up before too long. We tried to get a mix of instrumentation in here, as well as serve up a mix of great covers and creative originals as well.Computerinfo Cellphones

Google’s Orkut Drops Support for IE6

Microsoft may be opposed, but the campaign to kill off Internet Explorer 6 has gained a powerful ally this week: GoogleGoogleGoogle’s OrkutOrkutOrkut, the leading social network in Brazil, has vowed to stop supporting the browser.

If you visit Orkut using IE6 today, you’ll see a warning message that says Orkut is ending support for the browser, while recommending other browsers to try: Internet ExplorerInternet ExplorerInternet Explorer 8, ChromeChromeChrome, and FirefoxFirefoxFirefox:

orkutie6

Given that Chrome is Google’s IE challenger, it could be seen as generous that Google would push IE8 ahead of its own product. Nonetheless, the greater effect is to push many Brazilian web users away from the outdated IE6 and consider the benefits of a modern web browser: a move that’s good for Google and great for the web design community.
“IE6 No More” Campaign

IE6 No More ImageGoogle’s move comes immediately after the formation of IE6 No More, a group of websites united to accelerate the switch away from the outdated IE6 browser. Last week we reported that more than 75 sites had joined the effort, including DisqusDisqusDisqus, Justin.tv and PosterousPosterousPosterous. All the sites in the group display a message to IE6 users asking them to switch to a more modern browser.

See also: IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On computerinfo more..

Tips for Getting Crawled Faster by Google

Probably the most important step in getting your site found in a search engine is the one in which the search engine crawls it. There are things that can be done and things that can be avoided to make this process as painless as possible for the search engine, which will in turn, make it as painless as possible for the webmaster.

Since Google dominates the search market share by such a large market share, it is always a good idea to listen to what they have to say about such matters. So when they post a presentation with tips on optimizing crawling and indexing, you'll probably want to pay attention.

Google has done just that, highlighting things to stay away from, and things you can do to enhance your site's crawlability. Here is that presentation with specific examples of URLs.

"The Internet is a big place; new content is being created all the time," says Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa. "Google has a finite number of resources, so when faced with the nearly-infinite quantity of content that's available online, Googlebot is only able to find and crawl a percentage of that content. Then, of the content we've crawled, we're only able to index a portion."

"URLs are like the bridges between your website and a search engine's crawler: crawlers need to be able to find and cross those bridges (i.e., find and crawl your URLs) in order to get to your site's content," continues Moskwa. "If your URLs are complicated or redundant, crawlers are going to spend time tracing and retracing their steps; if your URLs are organized and lead directly to distinct content, crawlers can spend their time accessing your content rather than crawling through empty pages, or crawling the same content over and over via different URLs."

If you want to get crawled faster by Google, you should remove user-specific details from URLs. Specifics of this can be viewed in the slideshow. Basically, URL parameters that don't change the content of the page, should be removed and put into a cookie. This will reduce the number of URLs that point to the same content, and speed up crawling.

Google says infinite spaces are a waste of time and bandwidth for all, which is why you should consider taking action when you have calendars that link to infinite numbers of past/future dates with unique URLs, or other paginated data.

Tell Google to ignore pages it can't crawl. This includes things like log-in pages, contact forms, shopping carts, and other pages that require users to perform actions that crawlers can't perform themselves. You can do this with the robots.txt file.

Finally, avoid duplicate content when possible. Google likes to have one URL for each piece of content. They do recognize that this is not always possible though (because of content management systems and what have you), which is why the canonical link element exists to let you specify the preferred URL for a particular piece of content. computerinfo

Email Marketing Remains Reliable

hree misconceptions refuted

Keeping up with the latest marketing techniques is a good thing; new stuff can be very useful. At the same time, the process of keeping up can act to prevent a person from ever getting ahead, and an expert recently spoke up to say that email marketing remains effective.

Gail Goodman named three misconceptions about email marketing, with the first being that the inbox is irrelevant. She wrote, "It's true that consumers are getting more e-mail now than ever before. That's exactly why permission-based e-mail marketing is so valuable in reaching customers overwhelmed by inbox overload. . . . [W]hen someone signs up for your mailing list, they're giving you a vote of confidence that your e-mail content is valuable to them."

The second misconception relates to Facebook, Twitter, and all that: "social media has replaced email marketing." Goodman posits that email is a better way of reaching potential customers on a one-on-way basis than, say, a passing tweet that 300 other people may or may not view.

Finally, if you're concerned that young people don't use email anymore, you might simply be wrong, according to Goodman. Many young people use their email accounts to keep track of important, more formal, stuff, including work- and school-related communication.

Unless you've got some serious data to support a switch, then, try not to completely abandon reliable marketing methods for flavor-of-the-moment approaches. More

Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Announce Deal

Well, they've finally gone and done it. Microsoft and Yahoo have partnered to "change the search landscape." The two companies today announced a long-awaited deal, in which Microsoft will power Yahoo search while Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft's search engine, Bing.

You know this history by now. Here's what the companies have to say:

Carol Bartz "This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development," said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. "Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences."

Steve BallmerMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," said Ballmer. "Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

Key Terms as highlighted in the announcement:

- The term of the agreement is 10 years;

- Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;

- Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;

- Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process;

- Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;

- Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;

- Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites;

- Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and

- Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

- Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;

- At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and

- The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.More..

Will Twitter Search Be the Next Wikipedia Search?

After checking out Bing's explanation of how it handles reference searches, it got me thinking how big of a role Wikipedia plays in search. Wikipedia entries are often among the top results in Google, and clearly they are a big part of Bing's strategy as well.

By this time next year, these are the only two search engines we're going to be talking about as far as who has how much market share. Yahoo of course will be using Bing to deliver its results, so essentially the big 3 will become the big 2.

If Twitter plays a significant role in the search market, than Wikipedia sure does as well, because it gets a lot more unique visitors than Twitter. In fact, at this point it gets more than Bing too, although that looks to be on pace to change pretty soon.

Twitter results are useful (can be at least) for timely information. Wikipedia results are useful for reference information. These are two very different niches, yet both important ones. I think it's fair to assume that Google drives a great many of those unique visitors to Wikipedia, and Bing will drive an increasingly large amount too. The question is how many people just go to Wikipedia and search?

Right now, we're assuming that people are and will just go to Twitter to search when they want to see what people are saying "right now" about something. That's why Twitter's homepage redesign is significant. Google and Bing don't have real real-time search offerings in place...yet.

Twitter Search is significant to the industry right now, but that significance could dwindle once Google and Microsoft start incorporating true real-time search into their own results. We don't know exactly how either search engine will handle this, but I think it's safe to assume that it's coming sooner or later. I tend to believe real-time results will eventually make their way into Google's Universal results for example.

Once that happens, Twitter Search may not be as important as it appears to be now. I liken it to the importance of Wikipedia search. You can search Wikipedia when you want, and it is helpful. Users will still be able to do the same with Twitter, but chances are, most will search Google or Bing in the future and get their Twitter results from there (based on relevancy), much like they get their Wikipedia results now.

What do you think?

Note: When I say that Twitter Search's significance could dwindle in the future, I mean with regards to how people search in general. I do think that Twitter Search will continue to be incredibly significant to Twitter itself, and that the new homepage redesign will highlight it and show the public some usefulness that they may not have seen before. More...

Senators Push For Ban On Texting While Driving

A group of Democratic senators are co-sponsoring legislation that would ban texting while driving nationwide.

The four senators co-sponsoring the legislation - Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.). The legislation would force states to ban texting while driving or risk losing all federal highway funds. The legislation is set to be announced at a press conference today.
Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
New York Senator http://images.ientrymail.com/webpronews/article_pics/charles-schumer.jpg

Fourteen states currently have bans in place that ban texting while driving, while five states and the District of Columbia, ban all drivers from talking on a handheld cell phone while driving.

Earlier this week, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute released a study that found truck drivers who text while driving are 23 more times likely to be in a traffic accident. The study found talking on a cell phone increased the risk of an accident for drivers of cars, light trucks and heavy trucks, but was most risky for tuck drivers who used texting.

Schumer is also pushing for legislation that would ban bus drivers and train conductors from texting while on the job.

"Texting while conducting a train or driving a bus is not only irresponsible, it's extremely dangerous," Schumer said.

Tony La Russa sues Twitter over alleged fake page

ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is suing the social-networking site Twitter, claiming an unauthorized page using his name damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.

The suit filed last month in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco seeks unspecified damages.

Messages left Thursday with La Russa's attorney and San Francisco-based Twitter were not returned.

The lawsuit claims that someone created a false account under La Russa's name and posted updates, known as "tweets," that gave the false impression that the comments came from La Russa. The suit said the comments were "derogatory and demeaning" and damaged La Russa's trademark rights.

The account bearing La Russa's name is no longer active.

La Russa's lawsuit said the page bearing his name was hurtful to the 64-year-old manager, who has led the Cardinals since 1996 and also managed the Chicago White Sox and Oakland A's during a 30-year managerial career.

The lawsuit includes a screenshot of tweets with the heading "Hey there! Tony La Russa is using Twitter," with a picture of the manager. Among other things, the lawsuit claims the page includes distasteful references to two Cardinals pitchers who have died in recent years.

The same page includes an aside that reads, "Bio Parodies are fun for everyone."

Some professional athletes and others connected to pro sports have embraced Twitter. Shaquille O'Neal posted a message on his Twitter.com site saying he was pulling for former teammate Kobe Bryant to win a fourth championship as the Lakers entered the NBA finals against Orlando.

"I am saying it today and today only," O'Neal tweeted. "I want kobe bryant to get number four, spread da word."

Buffalo Bills receiver Terrell Owens posted a message on his Twitter site Tuesday that his search for a home to rent hit a snag because residents "(don't) want any drama n their neighborhood!! LOL!!! Wow!!." more..

Debating the power of Google's Wave

We've had about a week to absorb the Google's pitch for Wave, its new experimental communication platform, and about a day to try the actual early "sandbox" build of the service. See our hands-on review. But there's more to talk about with Wave. It's not just an app, it's an important evolution in the philosophy of written communication.

People will see Wave in different ways. For some, it's a clever take on e-mail. Others will see it as instant messaging with new features. Developers will look at Wave's open specs and APIs, and see a framework for new collaborative apps. But is it really any of these things, or just a crazy experiment from Google's Australian outpost?

Is it better than e-mail?

CNET Editor Rafe Needleman:

In some ways, it really is. With Wave, you don't reply to a message with a new message, you instead add your reply to the message itself. When there are multiple people involved in a conversation, this can prevent a lot of confusion. There's only one "wave" in a conversation, not a volley of messages flying around that repeat each other.

CNET Senior Writer Stephen Shankland:

Gmail users accustomed to conversation view, which stacks the back-and-forth discussion into a single view, will have an easier time adjusting to Wave's ways.

And just as Gmail works best if you only deal with one e-mail at a time, Wave is good at only one wave at a time. That's fine for a lot of IM-like chats, but if you work in depth on multiple waves simultaneously, think about opening multiple browser tabs. There are boldface indicators of new activity in your inbox, which tell you who's active, but with multiple tabs you won't always see them--especially if your inbox gets crowded with new waves.

Needleman:

It's fun to play with now, but we don't know what using Wave will be like once we start getting overflowing inboxes of waves.

Shankland:

Right. Every Net communication technology goes through a honeymoon period where just you and your close contacts use it. Then the whole Net discovers it and your little paradise becomes just another conduit for spam, inane jokes, and trivia. Expect the same issues with Wave.

Needleman:

The thing everyone is going to make a big deal of in Wave is that you can interrupt someone who's carefully writing a message to you. You can barge into a message before they're done with it, demand the writer's immediate attention, and force them to shift from composing to replying. There will be a way to hide your real-time activity in Wave, but the default mode is real-time. It's interruptive and very different. There will be people who hate it.

more google wave

E3 game trailer : Crackdown 2

Crackdown 2

will continue the open-world, over-the-top action game that made a splash in 2007 on Xbox 360. Microsoft announced the game at the company's E3 2009 press conference, but details of a launch date were not disclosed. Crackdown 2 will be an Xbox 360-exclusive title when it does actually release.more...E3 game trailer

Can u Believe Beatles : Rock Band Together

LOS ANGELES-->If You Were Among The Thousands Of People At Microsoft's E3 Press Briefing On Monday, It's A Pretty Sure Bet That The Appearance On-Stage There Of Paul Mccartney, Ringo Starr, And Yoko Ono Was One Of The Most Unexpected Things Imaginable.

But If You Think About It, The Very Existence Of The Game That Led To Their Showing Up During The Xbox Press Briefing, Harmonix And Mtv Games' "Beatles: Rock Band," Is Even More Surprising. After All, The Beatles Have, Over The Years, Maintained A Stranglehold Over Control Of Their Music. For Example The Beatles Are Still The Holy Grail That Itunes Has Not Yet Been Able To Corral.

The game will be released on September 9 (09.09.09) on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Wii.

So how did the game come to pass?

Since the two remaining Beatles weren't able to come to the phone for this article, I decided to stop by the Harmonix booth at E3 and ask the game's lead designer, Chris Foster, for the skinny behind what has got to be one of the biggest coups in video gaming history.

Foster said the story begins a couple of years ago, when MTV President Van Toffler ran into Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, in some random social setting.

"It was just sort of through happenstance," Foster said. "Dhani was a big 'Rock Band' fan, and there was this sort of, 'Wouldn't it be nice if...but it'll never happen.'"

Beatles RockBand rocks E3

But being a "Rock Band" fan, Dhani Harrison took his idea to Harmonix CEO and co-founder Alex Rigopulos and began a conversation about what a Beatles version of "Rock Band" could be. Foster said that the idea seemed like a huge challenge, but, deciding to pursue it, Harrison began evangelizing the idea to Apple Corps, the Beatles' U.K. publisher, and its shareholders, particularly McCartney, Starr, and Ono.

"So then, from that point, it was just sort of getting them familiar with ('Rock Band')," Foster said, "and getting them understanding what the game could be like."

By now, the discussions were far enough along that Harmonix put together a simple demo of the kind of music and conceptual art that could be used in the game, Foster said.

And, amazingly, inexplicably, it worked.

Have head One of Google Chrome’s First Extensions: AdSweep

AdBlock Plus, an add-on that prevents advertisements from being loaded on web pages, is one of the most popular add-ons for Firefox (Firefox reviews). The non-profit Mozilla Foundation (whose corporate arm, Mozilla Corporation, does profit mainly from advertising) has never tried to thwart the add-on.

For the maker of Chrome (Chrome reviews), Google (Google reviews), advertising is a much more serious business. The company makes billions of dollars in web-based advertising, and it definitely won’t be too happy when AdSweep, an ad-blocking extension for Chrome, becomes widely available.

Yes, this extension has been around for a couple of months, but extensions aren’t yet officially supported by Chrome and there’s no easy way to install it. This will change, as Google has recently opened up an API for third party developers, with plans to start officially supporting extensions soon.

According to LA Times, Google has been ambiguous on the subject so far. Of course, Google Chrome (Google Chrome reviews) has a relatively small chunk of the web browser market (1.42% in April, according to some estimates), and the users that install AdSweep will not be a threat to its revenue. But ultimately, Google’s goal for Chrome is to attain as much market share as possible; if Chrome’s market share rises, AdSweep and similar extensions will become more and more of a problem for Google.more

Bing is start...let,s test bing...

Bing, Microsoft’s latest effort to beat Google (Google reviews) at what it does best - search - is now live for everyone. It’s bearing the ubiquitous “beta” tag, and contrary to what many expected from Microsoft, the search is decent. But it’s also strangely familiar. Is it decent enough to compete with Google? Read on.

Anxious to see what Microsoft has in store for us, I’ve fired up a couple of usual examples: “Mashable (Mashable reviews)“, “Stan Schroeder” (the standard vanity searches), “MSI megabook 677” (some random piece of hardware), “Star Trek” (new movie, old series, let’s see which will get prioritized) etc.

The results were solid, too good, perhaps, for a very new search engine, but also oddly familiar. And then it dawned on me: it’s Live.com. The results for any query are exactly the same as on Live.com. And we’re not talking about the first couple of results; we’re talking about all results.

(*note: I was lucky to be able to try it out, because 20 minutes after I started writing this article, Live.com started redirecting to Bing.com. Of course, it’s now the same search engine.)

So, what does Bing do differently? It puts related search on the left side of the screen, instead of the right. It also gives you short preview of the contents of search results as you mouse over them, and autoplays videos. Nice. But there’s no trace of better organization of search results that we were promised, or anything really interesting here. Videos, images? Also pretty much the same as on Live.com. Shopping? Merely a redirect to www.ciao.co.uk.

*edit: the above stands for the UK version of Bing. Manually setting the location to various places in the world, i.e. switching from UK to US changes Bing significantly. There’s at least three very different versions of Bing right now, and depending on where you are, your Bing experience will be very different. It’s a very weird decision from Microsoft, bound to cause a lot of confusion, but hey: it’s the Microsoft way.

So, let’s test the US version. The Shopping is now Bing’s own, instead of a redirect to Ciao, while video and image search is very similar in both versions. The core of the search engine, from what I can see, is still Live.com, but the search results for some queries are indeed organized topically; for example, for “Star Trek” the results will be divided into general results, Star Trek cast, Star Trek Wallpapers, Theme Song, DVD, Episodes, and so forth. It doesn’t always work; for “Wolverine,” I just get the standard list of results; oddly enough, they’re worse on the US version (if you’re looking for the movie, of course) than on the UK version, which brings more results relevant to Wolverine the movie. For the same query (”Wolverine“), Google blows both out of the water.

How useful are Bing’s search subcategories, which are arguably its most important feature? Depends. If you’re used to entering precise queries, such as “Starbucks menu”, you’ll never see them. If you prefer entering a broader query “Starbucks” and then choosing from subcategories such as Recipes, Menu, Franchise, Nutrition and Coupons, Bing will work great. However, these subcategories aren’t all that different from ye olde search suggestions, and although they’re often helpful, I doubt they will revolutionize search.

Most importantly, Bing is currently still changing. I’d like to hear your experiences and thoughts about Bing, but right now, it seems like a half-way transition from Live.com to something new, and it’s very hard to assess its true value until the various versions scattered around the world are consolidated into one.more...

IT Certification

Computer training courses are easy to find but deciding which course are best to take, however, is a bit more complex. When evaluating computer training courses, several questions may come to mind in which each plays a major part in the decision making process. The main reason for taking computer training is to learn the skills needed to become a certified professional within the IT world.

it-boot-camp-trainingThe rapid growing in IT technology have been evolving along with the requirements for particular certifications to meet the needs for IT professionals who working in various IT positions. The certification program should be more specific and diverse which allowing individuals to gain credentials more relevant to their position or expertise. Furthermore, IT technology specialist certifications should enable professionals to obtain specialized in-depth knowledge within a broad spectrum of technologies, such as capability in implementing, building, troubleshooting, and debugging a particular technology.

Countrywide Training is a prominent computer training service for those who are ready to get industry recognition for their advanced technical skills and push their careers up to the top. They provide training solutions that well suited for IT specialist including onsite computer IT training classes, online live IT Training, self-study computer based training (CBT) classes and IT certification boot camp training programs.

They also provide corporate training that includes onsite training and computer class programs that teach several employees at once with optional virtual classroom training where the trainees are having their classes in their remote computers. The virtual class program will make them feel like they are in a classroom environment as an instructor teaches right in front of them. Taking part in virtual training class considerably bring many benefit since the trainees feel they are part of a class to make them learn easier and encourage them to ask in-depth questions right on the spot. more

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer ?

While the world has focused on Google Wave as a mash-up of chat, e-mail, and document sharing, it's really something else: Google Wave could be the Twitter that everyone really wants. Maybe it's the Facebook, too.

Shown for the first time on Thursday at Google's I/O developer conference, Wave is described as "equal part conversation and document" for its uses as a collaboration tool. But, the leap from what Google says Wave is today to what it can easily become is a short one.

If Google wants to compete, head-to-head, with Twitter and Facebook, Wave is the perfect start. It may not be a competitor when it first becomes publicly available, perhaps because the merging of documents, feeds, photos, e-mail, instant messaging, event planning, and other features is likely to seem so unfamiliar to users.

It will likely take time before would-be users really understand what Wave does and can be used for. How much time? Months, not years.

Then give Wave a more public face--documents, chats, IMs, etc.--to be shared with everyone on your contact list or the world at-large and Wave does everything Facebook and Twitter do. And more.

It is not a foregone conclusion this will happen. Outside its core search business and related tools, Google has faced an uphill battle for user acceptance. However, Wave, by combining so many otherwise separate Google features, could finally provide the compelling experience users seek.
Build, Not Buy


For months there have been rumors that Google would buy one (both?) of the big social network players. Why didn't it? With Wave almost ready to release, why spend the money to purchase a large distraction?

Another important thing: Google already has a built-in, advertising-based business model that customers understand. That is a huge thing, considering that Twitter and Facebook are still looking for ways to monetize their users.

While Google has not announced a release date, it only describes availability as "later this year," the company has started a developer program, released a set of APIs, and is providing limited access to developers seeking to test their Wave-based applications. An active developer forum now exists, as well as a Wave development team blog.
Waving For Business


Google Wave has obvious business uses, combining tools that businesspeople use every day. It will be important that the Wave mail client and other applications learn to work with closely what we already use and for Wave to be something people can adopt without disrupting how they already work.

That has been a challenge for Google in the past, but if Wave is to achieve its great potential it must be easy to adopt and add to the way people already work.

Meanwhile, Twitter and Facebook need to be looking over their shoulders. more...twitter killer

SEO benefits from social sites

These days the online ’social’ definition is primarily defined by sites and services that provide many of the social functions on simple interfaces where you just fill out a profile form and then you are ready to start contributing without having knowledge of HTML. In the past if you had several bookmarks that you thought were interesting and you would like share them with others, you could send an email or instant message to a friend or post the links on your web page. Today people are turning to social bookmark services like Digg, Delicious, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Create a profile and start reviewing links that meet your interests, submit new links that others might like which are added to your profile. These services will allow you to give a short description of the page or other item that you are bookmarking and let the community for review.

Unlikely to normal bookmark, services like Deliciousand Technorati, let users ‘tag’ keywords to links as well. This social tagging services allow a tagged link to be made searchable for specific words and word combinations, available through directory like lists or ‘tag clouds’. Searches can be set as RSS feeds and sent to your RSS reader be used to publish searches and feeds.

Another social service is called social search, in which the process can help to winnow down the wheat from the chaff with results are considered ‘more relevant’ than a search engine’s algorithm because the results are hand picked. Some services like Eurekster and Rollyo for example can assist you in creating a personalized/shareable search engines based on your own set of criteria. The subjectivity that ordinary search engines lack is one of the factors that appear to keep these services popular with their users.

On the SEO and marketing side, could this tagging, bookmark, and search service be of use in promoting your website? The answer is the fact that a link back to your site from these services can gain you some small or large amount of traffic. If some one find your bookmark or tag from one of those sites and points back to one of your pages, this surely pass benefit to you. You may find a way to gain more benefits if you take part in some of those social networks in a meaningful way, even if you are not taking part for traditional rankings, link gathering, or other reasons.