Google Trends, a service that lets you compare the world’s relative interest in particular topics, suggests that blogs’ popularity have surpassed that of newspapers or magazines, at least on Google.
In the future, bloggers will graciously leave a small place in the WWW for old media. Like an “Old Folks Home”.
… Jakob Nielson, web usability consultant, author, and owner of useit.com, writes on his site about a recent research study by Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer …
… users will read about 20% of the text on the average page
Read Write Web – The Stats Are In: You’re Just Skimming This Article
visual heat map – source
The fewer words, the better. Compelling pictures and video, more important.
If something really jump out at you as important, follow the links for details.
Like most everyone, I struggle with different ways to handle TO DO lists.
Less problematic is where to store my photos, video, web page bookmark, and half-baked ideas.
Here’s some software which looks amazing. I will give it a try.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
It’s free in the trial BETA period.
(via Duncan Riley on TechCrunch)
The internet is the last best hope for the human race — until we flee this planet because of the Cylons.
Information and communication are virtually free. You can join or quit any kind of community of like minded thinkers in seconds.
Any unknown genius can put up a blog.
Dave Adlard probably forgets that he was the first to open my eyes to the possibilities of “linked” bits of information. He was.
But here’s what most people are doing with the wondrous opportunity that is the WWW.
It was Rocco that first told me about the search engine Google. What a revolution! We could stop arguments by saying, “Let’s Google it.”
Now Google’s made it easy for you to check your horoscope several times a day. How many steps backward is that?
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Can’t let him get too far ahead of me in geekdom.
I’ll join too, with a strategy to try to denial of service him into dropping the hip service.
Glorious are the 6% of people that use RSS.
Then there’s YOU.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format used to deliver information from websites and pages that get updated regularly. An RSS document (which is called feed) contains either a summary or the full content from a website.
The main benefit of RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite websites without having to visit them. Once you subscribe to a particular RSS feed, you will automatically receive updates from the website that publishes the feed, whenever they release new content.
RSS is the best thing since email.
… OK, bad example. Best thing since email-if-it-did-not-have-SPAM.
Get into RSS so you can look down on the 94% of those — mostly richer and better looking — dolts that don’t.
Blogging is ALL about ranting and raving. Taking an extreme or contrary point of view. Still … all those unique voices tend to march in lock step on certain topics.
Bloggers HATE:
Patents, Patent trolls, and the Patent office
Vista
ValleyWag
The MPAA and the RIAA
Comcast
Cellular carriers
Mainstream media
Guy Kawasaki
CNET
Bloggers LOVE:
Apple
Linux
TechCrunch
Engadget
Firefox
After reading The 10 things you may complain about (and five you may not) by the astute Rafe Needleman, I felt a bit sheepish.
original – flickr – Lordcolus
Feeling guilty about trashing MS so often, I’m obliged to mention it whenever they do something (unexpectedly) right.
I have no use for this product, myself. But if you do group collaboration online, know that it works. Works on a Mac. In browsers other than IE. Works in Canada and other countries. It works.
Bravo Microsoft.
Windows Live SkyDrive (previously Windows Live Folders) … allow users to upload their files to the computing cloud, and then access them from a web browser. … keep the files private, share with contacts, or make the files public.
The service currently offers 5GB, with a maximum upload file size of 50MB. Up to five files can be uploaded each time.
Video: Demo: Windows Live SkyDrive
SkyDrive – homepage
Where’s the Google version, people are wondering. Not often MS beats them to the punch.
When Wikipedia Won’t Cut It: 25 Online Sources for Reliable, Researched Facts
By Jessica Hupp
Although Wikipedia is a great place to find information, it’s subject to incomplete citations, biased views, and inaccuracies. And when you absolutely have to have undisputable facts, that’s just not good enough. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives out there that can deliver with high quality accuracy, and we’ve listed 25 of the best here.
- Citizendium: This wiki focuses on credibility, using both the general public and credentialed experts. It works just like Wikipedia, but better.
- AmericanFactFinder: This database from the US Census Bureau is a great source for information on housing, economics, geography and population.
- The Linguist List: The Linguist List is home to a peer-reviewed database of language and language-family information.
- Intute: Created by a network of UK universities and partners, this database is full of evaluations from subject specialists.
- Classic Encyclopedia: This online encyclopedia is based on the 1911 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittannica. Although quite old, it offers an in-depth look on more than 40,000 items, and it’s widely considered to be the best encyclopedias ever written.
- Virtual Reference Shelf: This Library of Congress site offers a number of high quality selected web resources.
- MedBioWorld: Get professional medical and biotechnology information from this resource for journals, reference tools, databases, and more.
- Library Spot: Check out this site for libraries online, a reading room, reference desk, and more.
- FactCheck.org: FactCheck.org researches politics and delivers the truth on candidates and more.
- iTools: Use iTools’ research tools to find facts and theories on just about any subject.
- Browse Topics: Maintained by professional librarians, this site links to Federal websites that offer facts.
- WWW Virtual Library: Created by Tim Berners-Lee, who also created HTML and the Web, this library uses experts to compile high quality information.
- Open Site: Open Site uses volunteer editors to offer a fair, impartial Internet encyclopedia.
- CredoReference: CredoReference aggregates content from some of the best publishers in reference, offering more than 3 million reference entries.
- Internet Public Library: In the Internet Public Library, you’ll find references for nearly every subject out there.
- Infoplease: Infoplease offers an entire suite of reference materials, including an atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia, and almanacs.
- STAT-USA/Internet: This service of the US Department of Commerce offers information on business, economics, trade, and more.
- Mathematica: Mathematica, the Wolfram Library Archive, offers research and information on math, science, and more.
- Refdesk: Refdesk calls itself the single best resource for facts, and it delivers. Visit this online reference desk to find facts in their tools, facts-at-a-glance, or facts search desk.
- AskOxford: This reference tool from Oxford University Press offers facts and tips on the English language and more.
- The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Whether you’re searching for weather, food, gardening, or beyond, you’ll find what you need in this online almanac.
- eXtension: The information you’ll find on eXtension is objective, research-based, and credible.
- FindLaw: This listing of legal resources makes it easy to find cases, codes, references, and much more.
- CIA Factbook: The CIA Factbook offers information on world countries and more.
- Martindale’s: The Reference Desk: Find reference material for nearly everything, from medicine to weather. …
read the whole article – CollegeDegree.com
Dave Adlard is a regular computer user. Microsoft XP, Outlook, Office. And a number of software packages not available on Mac or Linux.
He’s not sure why I’m so irked, always railing against the evil from Redmond. No major complaints from him. Perhaps it’s mainly Apple fan boys complaining about products they rarely use.
… I’ll put together a dedicated post on why Microsoft is evil.
For today, a related topic. I’m so convinced that the dinosaur is dying that I rarely give a second thought to what they SHOULD do. Two things:
First, focus on Gaming. It’s a huge and growing market and Microsoft is one of the top 3 players along with Sony and Nintendo.
Next, leverage their HUGE advantage in email. Here’s the post that got me thinking:
Bill Tancer has a great post about Microsoft plus Yahoo!’s combined share in applications. The thing that jumps out at me is just how dominant the combination would be in web-based email. …
Add in Microsoft’s incredible dominance in corporate email with Exchange and Outlook. Now think about all the possibilities that are starting to be explored in the area of email data as a source of information about users, and a locus for building new services for those users. (Of course, you might also think about the anti-trust implications of this combination….)
Email hasn’t changed significantly in years. As I’ve written previously, there’s a huge opportunity in building a next generation address book. … I want tools that augment my ability to remember, manage, and communicate with all the people I deal with every day, in both personal and business contexts. …
EVERYONE uses email. It’s a huge, compelling reason to use Microsoft or MicroHoo products. Even I am using Microsoft Entourage.
My alternatives (Apple Mail and Apple iCal), (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Gears) are not much stronger.
Sadly no matter how many brilliant people, no matter how much money MS throws at any project, they seem incapable at building it with the USER in mind.
I’ll probably have to wait until Apple, or Google, or someone else builds a truly great email system.
If Microsoft can solve the SPAM problem, as Bill Gates promised Jan. 24, 2004, they can win. But Bill failed, as usual, to deliver then. Why should I believe Microsoft will solve SPAM in 2008?
Rick McCharles 