So it’s become totally apparent to me that I am unable to stay away from the internet for even a day. I just got back from a trip up to northern Arizona for a friend’s wedding where my fiancee and I ended up renting a cabin, wanting to make a nice relaxing weekend away from any computers, client stuff, or anything that even resembles work. I even turned my email notifications on my BlackBerry off to try to help out a bit. So after being up there for about 6 hours and with the night coming to a close, there we are getting ready to go to bed, when I get this itch to go snooping around on Digg, check out some of my favorite forums and even browse some freelance gig postings on Craigslist. Now this wouldn’t be too bad if I didn’t end up sitting outside on the porch of our cabin for almost three hours doing this! By the time I was done, my eyes were burning from staring at my BlackBerry and my thumbs were starting to cramp from trying to type so damn much.
At the very moment I noticed what time it was, I caught myself falling asleep at the wheel, so to speak, so I decided to call it quits. I was exhausted the next morning, getting about 1/2 the sleep my fiancee did, but I sure did get my fix in! Maybe next time I’ll leave the BlackBerry at home.
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So I’ve been doing a lot of research online for shopping cart software to install on one of my client’s sites that until now has been using Paypal’s very basic solution. I’ve found a lot of the open source ones to be good, but not quite as “packed with peanuts” as we were hoping for. What we needed was supposed to be pretty simple:
- WYSIWYG Editing
- In-Depth Reporting
- SEO Friendly URLs
- Built-in Image Handling and Resizing
- Customizable Templates
There were of course a few other things, but I’ve installed and uninstalled about ten of these before I found the one my client and I both liked. The online shopping cart I ended up choosing was from ashop Commerce. I was able to get it loaded up very easily and even had some assistance along the way from a member of their very friendly staff. If I could remember their name (I apologize as I’m very forgetful!) I would’ve sent a thank you email. We went with the light plan which is less than $40/month. Great deal in my opinion as it made my job easy and made my client happy. Check them out.
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comScore Networks today released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. In March 2006, Google gained in search market share versus year ago for the eighth consecutive month and maintained its status as market leader with 42.7 percent of searches conducted on its sites. Yahoo! remained in second place with 28.0 percent, while MSN ranked third with 13.2 percent.
Share of Online Searches by Engine March 2006 vs. March 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore qSearch Mar-05 Mar-06 Point Change Total Internet Population 100% 100% N/A Google Sites 36.4 42.7 6.3 Yahoo! Sites 30.6 28.0 -2.6 MSN-Microsoft Sites 16.5 13.2 -3.3 Time Warner Network 8.9 7.6 -1.4 Ask Jeeves/Ask Network 5.5 5.9 0.4 — Americans conducted 6.4 billion searches online in March, up 10 percent from last month and 15 percent from last year. The increase in search queries from the previous month marked the largest gain over the past twelve months. — Google Sites led the pack with 2.7 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (1.8 billion), MSN-Microsoft (849 million), Time-Warner Network (486 million), and Ask Jeeves/Ask Network (376 million). — The toolbar search market continues to be dominated by Google and Yahoo!, which combined for more than 95 percent of toolbar searches in March. Google led the way with 48.9 percent, while Yahoo! captured 46.5 percent.
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The little-start-up-that-could has transformed itself into the 800-pound gorilla of the Web, though it has had to deal with recent growing pains. But the Google sales and marketing team isn’t ready to give up the top spot or its plans for making the globe a more Googley place to be…
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More than a year ago, Google launched its Print Library Project, a controversial plan to scan and index digital copies of millions of books, creating what Google describes as a vast virtual “card catalog.” The online research tool would allow users to search within books for relevant information and would generate revenue for Google through advertising sales. The plan has sparked significant controversy and led to two lawsuits.
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A new, Microsoft-based, online search engine focused on academic subjects is now live.
Windows Live Academic is a new addition to the Windows Live Search family of services that allows users to search through academic information. Currently, users can search content in academic journals in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics. We will be adding more subject areas in the near future, based on user feedback and demand.
The Academic Live search works with partner libraries and institutions around the world to search and to provide access to subscription-based content for their members. Access-restricted resources included in Academic Live index include subscription services and premium peer-reviewed journals.
Find it here.
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Ok, if anyone can do it, they can. Keep in mind, Kai-Fu Lee, who is the president of Google China, used to work for Microsoft on speech technology. The patent covers voice interfaces for search engines, suitable for cell phone users. But Google doesn’t necessarily have a product in the works using the technology.
Conversing with computers, long the preferred mode of interaction between man and machine in science fiction, just moved closer to reality. Google Inc. on Tuesday was granted a patent for a voice interface for search engines.
Then again, it might just be a pipedream. Google spokesperson Barry Schnitt issued this characteristically opaque comment on the company’s plans: “Like many companies, we file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees may come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don’t. Prospective product announcements should not be inferred from our patent applications.”
Here is the link to the full story.
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Of course. Microsoft decides that they’d like get social as well. I mean seriously, don’t they get beat up enough as it is? Officially, I’m out on this one. People don’t take stands quite often enough, so I am.
I mean think about it. How many friends do you have? No, not how many people do you know, or how many people do you say hello to everyday, but how many people do you know, trust, and actually be willing bet that they’d NEVER lead you in the wrong direction? I can only count about a handful of people, besides my family, that would fall into this category. These are the people I would want in my social network. One thing that’s very hard is to decide who to listen to and who not to listen to these days. There are so many self proclaimed “experts” that its just obnoxious. At least I know I can trust my real friends. I don’t want to trust some weird kid named Tom who slouches.
Honestly though even Yahoo! Answers is a bit too “let’s hear what advice this 13 year old kid has to say about my IRA Rollovers”. Maybe it’s just me being untrusting, but so be it. Good luck with that. I’m Out.
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Apparently, a Japanese theater will be playing Colin Farrell’s ‘The New World’ with scents synchronized to match with certain scenes.
A floral scent accompanies a love scene, while a mix of peppermint and rosemary is emitted during a tear-jerking scene. Joy is a citrus mix of orange and grapefruit, while anger is enhanced by a herb-like concoction with a hint of eucalyptus and tea tree.
The smells waft from special machines under the seats in the back rows of two movie theaters, which create different fragrances by controlling the mix of oils stored in the machines, company spokeswoman Akiko Suzaki said Wednesday.
That’s awesome. I want that.
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Lovin it. This thing is awesome. It’s like a tool, that I can write stuff in different days, so I know what’s going on and coming up in my life! Imagine that! I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Alright, alright, this one’s actually kinda cool. Gmail has even been adapted to automatically see when one of your emailes make mention to an event so it can be added to everyone’s calendar easily. What I really like is that you can add things just by typing like “Dinner with Beatrice at Joe’s Crab Shack on Friday April 14th”.
Take a look. I guess I need to start using my gmail account more now.
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