Web 2.0 SF 2010 Expo

The Web 2.0 Expo is well underway in San Francisco, where for the next couple of days the future of the web will be discussed by industry gurus, in between a scavenger hunt and other fun events. You can watch keynotes live here (hat tip: Nikos), while you wait for videos to be uploaded on their Blip.tv channel. Of course, you can follow everything happening on the expo’s official twitter.

Having access to all this information is almost as good as actually being there. Almost, but not quite. Note to self: travel more.

Cuil co-founders Anna Patterson, Louis Monier and Russell Power are clearly set out to take on their former employer, Google. Although Cuil’s technology may very well be able to do that – I don’t quite understand all the “look at me, I can do it better than Google” approach. Read this for instance. When you start typing a search term in Cuil, auto-complete sets in suggesting possible search terms. It can even suggest a direct website link. This is described on Cuil as “We let you look before you leap, because not everyone feels lucky.”, an obvious reference to Google’s “I Feel Lucky” search button directing you to the most likely possible match of your search to a website. It’s a little funny, not in a bad way though.

Getting passed the “I want Google’s head on a platter” hype, Cuil does seem promising. They claim to have new search architecture and algorithms in place which will provide for better, more relevant results. Twiceler, the search engine’s spider is set out to crawl every page on the World Wide Web. Already indexing more than 121 billion web pages. Popularity will not be the main factor of assessing a web page’s relevance to a search term. Their deeper content analysis Cuil says will provide for better results.

Another aspect of searching with Cuil which sets it apart from competitors is Privacy. Very simply put in their own words “when you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period. We have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookies”. Several competing search engines, store users’ web search history on their servers, claiming it helps them provide more relevant content. Cuil does not.

Venturing from the simple search box at the front page of Cuil to the results display, the user interface is unlike most you’ve grown to expect when you search the web. Instead of the conventional list style results, you get 3 columns by default, which can be switched to 2. For each resulting web page, there is a title, some of the contained text, and a picture. A format you’d most likely expect at News websites displaying their articles.

An “Explore by Category” box on the top-right, allows for quick searches on other subjects belonging in categories your current search is also listed in. Tabs on the top of the page provide quick switches to other relevant results.

Another thing that caught my attention though, is Cuil uses e-mail. I mean there are no forms there, besides the search form. If you want your website included in their index, you have to send them e-mail! If you want to inquire about employment, send feedback, make questions, just send them e-mail! They even use the same e-mail addresses to accept feedback on different issues, which means they actually have to read the messages instead of automating actions and replies. Impressive.

Still Google does continue to claim it indexes more on the web than Cuil, without revealing any numbers. And many users point out Google continues to offer more search results for the same search terms. Considering Cuil launched just yesterday, I think we all ought to wait a while and see. It may just be a bit to early to provide any constructive criticism.

Has anyone been using Cuil lately? I’d like to hear what you think of it!

Imagine in the near future, you can have a website address in the form of www.john.doe, www.mary.lovescats, www.government.office and www.summer.vacation.

Whether this will all lead to confusion or it will aid in the direction of an even more semantic web, it remains to be seen. Trademarks on web addresses will be hard to keep up with though. With the 21 top-level domains currently available, many companies choose to register their name with all in order to avoid consumer confusion and fraud. If there where hundreds of possible web address suffixes, that’d be a nearly impossible task to handle.

Among other decisions reached by the ICANN board in Paris, is the future support of other languages in web address extensions. Presently, you can only use 37 roman characters in a web address. Support for Asian, Arabic, Eastern European and Greek scripts should become available once that decision goes into implementation.

According to the ICANN this is the “biggest expansion to Internet in forty years”, and with a constantly growing demand for more websites and domain names, a much awaited for expansion by many.

If Yahoo is bought though – at whatever astronomical price, it will come to prove that EVERYTHING on this world is FOR SALE.

Is that a bad thing? Yes, and no. Ah, I love blog topics when there is no obvious conclusion.

Money where made to circulate. And this is a free economy (more or less), so if you can buy something and want to, you might as well go ahead.

Microsoft obviously wants Yahoo. In plain terms, Microsoft is not in a position to compete with Google on the Internet. So, why go out and build quality services which will attract devoted users, when you can buy a ready made company like Yahoo?

However, there are rules in competition. Microsoft has already been fined for it’s practices by the European Union – so I don’t see how a Microsoft – Yahoo merger would be seen favorably in Europe when it will almost definitely conflict with anti-monopoly regulations.

I practically grew up with Yahoo. I remember it as far back as 1996-7, before even Google came into the picture. So I may be a bit sentimental about seeing it diminished or absorbed into Microsoft. Never mind that, this is a “money talks” society, so the way Yahoo has been cornered, I doubt it will manage to continue as is.

I also doubt that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would be able to better rival Google. In fact, I think the one who will most benefit will be none other than Google itself. For so many reasons. Primarily because Microsoft would again mess up and fail to drive Yahoo to success.

Stories are out already, about a possible counter-proposal to Yahoo from Google. I cannot imagine how people over at Yahoo feel right now, it seems like one of these situations where you would have to choose over the lesser evil. “Which competitor do I surrender to?”, questions must have already been posed.

Oh well. What do you think about it? Would you rather see Yahoo bought by Microsoft, Google, or continue on its own?

Wonderful Jaiku users,

Exciting news, Jaiku is joining Google!

While its too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new friends at Google over the coming months to expand in ways we hope you’ll find interesting and useful. Our engineers are excited to be working together and enthusiastic developers lead to great innovation. We look forward to accomplishing great things together.

In order to focus on innovation instead of scaling, we have decided to close new user sign-ups for now. But fear not! All our Jaiku services will stay running the way you are used to and you will continue to be able to invite your friends to Jaiku.

We have put together a quick Q&A about the acquisition at http://jaiku.com/help/google

Jyri Engestrom and Petteri Koponen, Jaiku Founders

They seem to have closed new user sign-ups until they figure things out, which I hope won’t last too long. Jaiku is a vibrant, developing online community, and shutting out new users is NOT something wise right now. Especially with readily available competitors offering similar services online.

In any case, good luck to them!

Opera Mini allows you to access your favorite websites by sending a smaller size version of every page to your phone, allowing fast browsing with little to no compromise regarding the display. This makes it easy to browse the web even if you don’t have a fast G3 mobile phone or connection, and have to use GPRS.

Opera Mini 4 beta has recently been launched, and it is truly amazing. It is exactly how a mobile phone web browser should be – and it’s still in beta development.

The previous version of Opera Mini made website content fit to your mobile phone’s screen. Usually breaking the design intended to be viewed on computer screens by displaying text and images in a linear manner.

Now, “fit to screen” remains an option for users of the new beta version, however websites load by default almost exactly as they appear on your home computer’s screen. Of course, that makes everything extremely small – but users can place a rectangular selection tool over any part of the website they need a closer look at and Opera Mini instantly zooms in on it. Check out all the new features at their website here.

Support for CSS makes it easier for web designers to produce content that will render and display near perfectly, while users can manage RSS subscriptions, and bookmarks of their favorite places on the web.

Do you mobile browse? If you never tried to before, perhaps now is the time!

Click here for more information and how to get your free copy.

More information can also be found on the Wikipedia article for Opera Mini.

Today OLPC is looking into ways of making the laptop available to the general public under the condition of having to buy two laptops, with one being delivered to the buyer and the other to a child in one of the countries participating in the OLPC project. Still, it sounds like a good deal and an amazing opportunity to give the gift of education to children who may otherwise never have access to computers and the Internet as a learning tool.

• $100 laptop could sell to public – BBC NEWS

All jokes aside, the iPhone seems to be a promising new product for all high-tech gadget enthusiasts who can pay the price. I may not share in Mr Jobs enthusiasm over it, but all that is understandable too. Apple finally has enough consumer electronics products (2?) to make a move into that market. If Apple’s future was left to computers alone – it could have been less than promising.

So, what is the dynamic product duo the company will be using in this “revolutionary” leap into consumer electronics. The all familiar and loved by many iPod, and the “magical” iPhone. Which will essentially be a mobile phone with a built in iPod which has a bigger screen and wireless features like Microsoft’s Zune, and also boasting a bunch of other impressive capabilities like e-mailing and downloading and other things you could do on a palm-top PC or PDA.

Thus, iPhone will in layman’s terms be a fusion of an iPod, mobile phone and palm top PC into one product. Now that is something even I could find exciting. Consider the energy saving, and not having to carry all those things at the same time. However, from what I’ve seen so far I would not call it revolutionary technology. No. Since the product is pending Federal Communications Commission approval though, and I have yet to try one out – I am giving it the benefit of the doubt and saying there may be “magic” to it, waiting to be unveiled.

More information about this new version can be found here, you can download it here, and instructions on upgrading are here.

So what is it with Wii that makes it so special? If I only had to pick one thing that makes it stick out, I would say the controllers. Nintendo says the design of the Wii Remote controller aimed “To make gaming as accessible to people of all ages and all abilities…”. Nintendo’s marketing has long been producing consoles accessible to video game newbies, and it is the company which has perhaps proselytized the most people into playing video games.

Wii – for newbies or experts?

Both! From everything I’ve read and seen, Wii’s innovative approach to gaming is user friendly and exciting to both newcomers to the world of video games and to those who have years of experience.

The Remote Controllers

The Wii Remote is easily confused in shape for a TV remote control. Just about everyone knows how to use those, right? But who ever thought a “remote” can be a light saber, tennis racket, golf club, baseball bat, steering wheel, or samurai sword to name a few possible uses. It is all in the wrist really.

The Nunchuk controller connects to the Wii Remote’s expansion port and can be used in conjunction for games requiring extra sensitive control options. The motion-sensing technology featured in both the controllers, along with the built-in wireless (Bluetooth) connectivity and ambidextrous design, should make them the most versatile, configurable and easy to use out there.

Hardware

In the heart of the system we find “Broadway”. A powerful processing chip developed with IBM while “Hollywood” is right around the corner. Hollywood being the code name of an ATI created graphics chipset. Could this naming pattern be the promise of a cinematic gaming experience? 512MB of internal flash memory is there under the hood, which also boasts built-in Wi-Fi technology for Internet access, online gaming, etc, a media bay for playing both Wii 12cm optical disks and the 8cm ones used in GameCube, an SD memory expansion slot and two USB 2.0 ports. Up to four Remotes can connect to the Wii, while it will also be able to communicate with Nintendo’s DS mobile games console.

All packed in a sleek design, compact box.

Games Available

From day one you can play any of the GameCube games you may already own on the Wii, since it is fully backwards compatible. Of course, a rapidly growing collection of Wii specific games is also available to make the best use of the new console. These include popular Nintendo titles on series such as Big Brain Academy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports which comes bundled in the box, and Mario Strikers Charged to name a few. Meanwhile, titles produced by other game publishers expected to be available between the product’s launch and late March 2007 include Call of Duty 3, Far Cry: Vengeance, Prince of Persia, Need for Speed: Carbon, and Ice Age 2. A full list can be found here.

Official Market Launch and Pricing

The official launch date for Wii in the United States is November 19th, 2006 while it will also launch in Europe on December 8th, Japan December 2nd and Australia December 7th. The product will cost considerably less than the ridiculously priced competition and sell for an estimated 250 euros/dollars. Have a little patience and avoid the “grey” market where people who managed to get a hold of one are selling them online as “used and new” for prices up to 800 US dollars.

So, why Wii love it?

It’s wireless, connected, equipped, innovative, affordable, exciting, and offers a gaming experience unlike anything else to date. Also, it is rich in services such as those on Wii Channel which will provide access to a bundle of information, communication, fun gaming and personalization features. In a few words Wii has everything a gaming console should have and then some, all at a fair price.

Check out the official Nintendo Wii website here.