| AskCity Up and Running |
| The new AskCity product, which combines Ask.com’s existing maps product (overhauled last February) with deep local content (information, reviews, etc.) and very good search, might just be my new go to source for maps and local business information.The reason that AskCity has such good content is that they’ve taken it from CitySearch, another service owned by parent company IAC. CitySearch has ten years of local content, and that is now deeply integrated with Ask’s maps product. Key categories are Businesses and Services, Events, Movies, and Maps & Directions. The three pane interface allows users to conduct multiple searches, revise itineraries, create multi-point driving or walking directions (only Yahoo and Ask offer multi-point directions). Restaurant reservations are linked via OpenTable, event tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster (another IAC property) and soon they will integrate movie ticket purchases through Fandango. Searches can be refined by neighborhood, cuisine or movie genre. Ask Users can also pin items (events, places) onto a map, draw their own notes on the map, and send a permalink to the customized map to friends for printing or for their comments. |
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| AGLOCO Update |
| No Spyware In The Viewbar AGLOCO Viewbar will have absolutely no spyware. The Viewbar tracks your Internet surfing and serves advertising based on the web page you’re visiting. Everything the Viewbar tracks will be spelled out in the privacy statement. This is really nothing new. Many other toolbars, like Google’s, already track surfing habits. In addition, the Viewbar will offer privacy and phishing protection and an uninstaller should you wish to remove it for any reasons. 1 Hour Of Surf Time = 1 AGLOCO Share In the beginning of this program, AGLOCO will be rewarding members with shares of the company. 1 hour of surfing time equals 1 share of the company. Members will be able to accumulate 5 shares per month based on the current limits. Members will get 0.25 shares per hour for people in their network. How much will those shares be worth? Maybe zero, maybe millions. It really depends on how fast the network grows and how well management handles this growth. As AGLOCO starts to earn income from the Viewbar, members will be able to trade their hours for cash as well as shares. The amount per hour will be adjusted periodically to reflect income earned and company net worth. After a successful IPO, surf hours will mostly trade for cash, but shares will still be available. However, don’t expect to get 1 share per hour at that time. Personally, I am hoping AGLOCO grows like crazy and attracts the attention of the big boys (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc). Instead of doing an IPO, the company will be like YouTube, and get bought out. However, unlike the YouTube deal, the AGLOCO members will make big money on it. YouTube got huge because of their user base, yet the users got nothing of the $1.65 billion that Google paid. Give it a try, you can sign up here - it’s completely FREE. |
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| Adobe Unveils Plans: 2 Editions of Photoshop CS3 |
| Adobe announced at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show that it will expand its digital imaging product line, offering two editions of Adobe Photoshop CS3. In addition to the highly anticipated Photoshop CS3 software for designers and professional photographers, Adobe will also deliver Photoshop CS3 Extended, a completely new edition of Photoshop which allows cross-media creative professionals to stretch the limits of digital imaging. Photoshop CS3 Extended includes everything in Photoshop CS3 plus a new set of capabilities for integration of 3-D and motion graphics, image measurement and analysis. Photoshop CS3 Extended also simplifies the workflow for professionals in architecture, engineering, medical and science. Both Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended software will be formally introduced on March 27, 2007 - as part of the company’s launch of Creative Suite 3, where further details will be disclosed. The software is expected to ship in Spring 2007. |
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| Kodak And Mozilla Join Forces |
| Starting today, millions of online photo service users will have an easier time uploading and sharing their pictures thanks to KODAK Gallery and Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser. The Firefox Companion for KODAK Gallery combines the award-winning Firefox browser with the world’s number one online photo service making it easier than ever to upload, share and print your digital photos and create amazing photo gifts like books, calendars, collages and more. The Firefox Companion is available today for free download at www.firefox.com/kodak. Kodak and Mozilla’s release of the new companion will provide a seamless online experience for this growing group of photo enthusiasts making it easier to: - Drag and drop images from their computer directly to the companion
- Easily create a new photo album or add to an existing one
- Add captions in the browser that will be uploaded with their pictures to KODAK Gallery’s online site
“We want to provide consumers with easy and convenient ways to do more with their pictures and thanks to the Firefox Companion for KODAK, they can now upload and share faster than ever before,” said Madhav Mehra, general manager, KODAK Gallery. “The Firefox Companion for KODAK Gallery makes uploading large numbers of photos fast, easy and reliable,” said Christopher Beard, vice president, marketing and product management, Mozilla. “We’re excited to offer an online photo solution that combines the ease of use of Firefox with the quality and convenience of the KODAK Gallery experience.” By 2010, nearly 83 million people in the U.S. will use online photo services annually, according to market research firm InfoTrends. |
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| Google Maps: Speech-Friendly Textual Directions |
| Google Maps and its associated local search is a quick and easy means of locating businesses and obtaining directions. Most people who use it already seem to enjoy the graphical interface with its extremely reactive GUI. But when using spoken output, this visual richness can get in the way of quickly listening to the results of a maps query. As an alternative, Google Maps also provides a simple to use a textual interface that serves up directions very efficiently when working with a screenreader or a Braille display. This alternative view into Google Maps is here, at the Textual Maps UI (http://maps.google.com/?output=html). It's extremely useful for blind and visually impaired users, as well as an effective solution for those times when you're at a non-graphical display and need to quickly look up a location. Just type a simple English query of the form start address to end address and quickly get the information you're looking for. Though Google added this option to enhance the accessibility of Google Maps for blind and low-vision users, perhaps others will find this alternative view a useful addition to their maps arsenal. |
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| Web Designers - Need Inspiration? |
| Cool Home Pages is a web site that is more or less a repository of unique web designs. It’s a place where designers can go to get inspiration from their fellow designers. If you are so inclined, you can also submit sites to Cool Home Pages that you think are “cool.” According to Cool Home Pages, cool can be a lot of things. Almost the only thing it can’t be is something they’ve already seen over and over again. Their watchword is ‘REMARKABLE’ - there must be something remarkable about the homepage design that others may be interested in seeing. It could be a layout, a cool way to embed a Flash movie, maybe just the navigation scheme. Almost anything they haven’t already seen before, and is clever and usable, could qualify. Considering as how there are so many web sites and so many different designs on the web, today - creating something so unique that really hasn’t been seen elsewhere may seem like quite the daunting task. However, it’s definitely worth a shot of submitting your site. With the ranking they have on Alexa, they certainly get some traffic. Being listed would not only be a compliment to you as a designer, but a great way to help generate more exposure and traffic to your site. |
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| Apple Computer and TiVo? |
| There is word on the street that Steve Jobs will announce some sort of partnership with TiVo at the next MacWorld.Rumors usually get pretty crazy around MacWorld time. During last year’s Intel announcement, it was rumored that all press in attendance would get new notebooks but that didn’t happen. This one is probably just a rumor but if we think along the lines of iTV on its way, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea. PVRWire thinks that a partnership is highly unlikely but a licensing deal may be a possibility. TiVo has brand name recognition but declining market share. Apple has undeniable power, especially considering the amount of movies they’ve been able to sell for Disney on iTunes, but they have absolutely zero footing in the television market. They need each other. Problem is, Apple doesn’t often admit to needing anything or anyone. |
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| Kodak And Mozilla Join Forces |
| Starting today, millions of online photo service users will have an easier time uploading and sharing their pictures thanks to KODAK Gallery and Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser. The Firefox Companion for KODAK Gallery combines the award-winning Firefox browser with the world’s number one online photo service making it easier than ever to upload, share and print your digital photos and create amazing photo gifts like books, calendars, collages and more. The Firefox Companion is available today for free download at www.firefox.com/kodak. Kodak and Mozilla’s release of the new companion will provide a seamless online experience for this growing group of photo enthusiasts making it easier to: - Drag and drop images from their computer directly to the companion
- Easily create a new photo album or add to an existing one
- Add captions in the browser that will be uploaded with their pictures to KODAK Gallery’s online site
“We want to provide consumers with easy and convenient ways to do more with their pictures and thanks to the Firefox Companion for KODAK, they can now upload and share faster than ever before,” said Madhav Mehra, general manager, KODAK Gallery. “The Firefox Companion for KODAK Gallery makes uploading large numbers of photos fast, easy and reliable,” said Christopher Beard, vice president, marketing and product management, Mozilla. “We’re excited to offer an online photo solution that combines the ease of use of Firefox with the quality and convenience of the KODAK Gallery experience.” By 2010, nearly 83 million people in the U.S. will use online photo services annually, according to market research firm InfoTrends. |
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| Break.com Increases Video Payout |
| Break.com, a video sharing web site similar to YouTube, announced that it will pay $400 for user-generated videos and as much as $2,000 for animated shorts. When Break launched last year they offered $50 per video and later raised that to $250 before the increase to $400. With Google backing the massively popular YouTube, competitors have increasingly turned to paying contributers in an effort to lure them away from YouTube. Metacafe launched a similar program called “producer rewards” earlier this year. |
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| Web Designers - Need Inspiration? |
| Cool Home Pages is a web site that is more or less a repository of unique web designs. It’s a place where designers can go to get inspiration from their fellow designers. If you are so inclined, you can also submit sites to Cool Home Pages that you think are “cool.” According to Cool Home Pages, cool can be a lot of things. Almost the only thing it can’t be is something they’ve already seen over and over again. Their watchword is ‘REMARKABLE’ - there must be something remarkable about the homepage design that others may be interested in seeing. It could be a layout, a cool way to embed a Flash movie, maybe just the navigation scheme. Almost anything they haven’t already seen before, and is clever and usable, could qualify. Considering as how there are so many web sites and so many different designs on the web, today - creating something so unique that really hasn’t been seen elsewhere may seem like quite the daunting task. However, it’s definitely worth a shot of submitting your site. With the ranking they have on Alexa, they certainly get some traffic. Being listed would not only be a compliment to you as a designer, but a great way to help generate more exposure and traffic to your site. |
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