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.

Ubuntu's website announces 10.04 launch

The good people at Ubuntu announced today the release of the much anticipated 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support) version of their popular linux distribution. Ubuntu has long been a personal favorite of mine, and why wouldn’t it be. A free, open-source operating system that makes computers running it work faster and not crash. At least that’s always been my experience with it, and thus I say it’s not hard to love.

Ubuntu comes already loaded with the software you’ll need to browse the web, work on documents, and communicate. However, your options as to the applications you need or want to use are abundant. The built in Ubuntu Software Center gives you easy access to thousands of free, open-source applications to choose from.

More than 2,ooo years ago, Aristotle said about humans “We are social animals”. Then Facebook, twitter and a bunch of other online social services decided to act upon this assertion. Now, new in Ubuntu 10.04 is making your social networking ever so easy. Access, control and update your networks and conversations, through the Me Menu.

Also new is the integrated music store in Ubuntu’s music player, allowing for quick purchase of the music you want to buy, while the Ubuntu One free online storage service allows you to store your music and files online, and listen from anywhere.

You can find out more about this new release of Ubuntu here, and download for free here.

Earth View at Google Maps

A new option to view maps in Earth View, takes the Satellite option one step further by incorporating 3D views, high resolution images and fly around the world navigation almost identical to that of the popular Google Earth software.

First time you select Earth on the maps page, you will be prompted to download and install a plugin that will allow your web browser to use this feature. Quite like Microsoft’s Bing Maps have been operating for some time.

I really enjoyed test driving the Earth View, and I’m looking forward to what’s next from the Google Earth and Maps team! You can view the video below for a more detailed description of this newest feature.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was developed by Getalime as an entry to the Rails Rumble 2008 contest, which is an annual competition for web applications programmed in Ruby on Rails.

You simply tell it what you want to be reminded of, when, and how. Reminders can be sent as e-mail, mobile text message, or to your jabber or twitter account.

Remindr has earned a place in my list of favorite web applications, and you can try it out and see for yourself by visiting here. No registration required, and it’s free.

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!

WHY!?

First thought when I noticed that, was my browser had been hijacked and that I was at a phishing site or fraudulent Google imitator. I think that might have been preferable.

The new favicon used by Google is… so bad, it could almost be characterized “evil”. Come on! Is that the best a company of Google’s gravity can come up with? Who is responsible? A 5 year old using an online favicon maker?

Right, that’s just my opinion. I don’t like it. I wish it would go away. But why should they listen to me, or the voice of reason for that matter? They can even make an animated favicon featuring a purple tortoise belly dancing and get away with it. I am not saying the previous icon was a work of art or something. But at least everyone was familiar with and used to it.

If you can’t make something better, at least don’t make it worse. Please.

It makes use of Google Maps, and there’s lots of cool stuff you can do there. These include embedding your favorite spots on your blog, writing reviews on spots and events, bookmarking, adding friends, sharing photos and videos on the places you bookmark.

Nomao’s user interface is about as web 2.0 as they get. Without sacrificing usability. In reality, it’s one of the most simple to use and effective user interfaces I’ve seen on a web service in quite some time. Well, at least according to my liking.

I think I’m going to like using this

The pictures show how the Firefox logo resembles the star V838 Monocerotis in the Monoceros (Greek for Unicorn) constellation, which is 20,000 light years away from our very own Sun. Prominent figures in conspiracy theory circles now evaluate V838 as a possible home of whatever intelligent beings brought “Firefox” to our own planet.

And there is at least one mad scientist who thinks the current lead developers in the Mozilla Firefox team are actually aliens descended from those first visitors. Reliable sources who cannot be named due to psychiatrist-patient confidentiality are however claiming there is no threat to planet Earth. In reality, the “Firefox people/aliens” are on the world’s side, protecting us from world domination by their evil rival, a piece of software which backed by an evil alien warlord clan has found it’s way into every computer and is near impossible to get rid of.

There is at least one recently documented visit of a U.F.O. from Firefox’s constellation. Where else could it have been from? Look at the crop circle below… That is a satellite image, directly from Google Maps. Does that look familiar?

View Larger Map

Earlier this year, on another post, I discussed OLPC’s plans to make their laptops available to the public for purchase, should each buyer agree to also donate one laptop. It seems this plan is becoming a reality.

Head over at the XO laptop giving website to find out more about it. Official launch date for the give one – take one project is November 12th.

All through the ease of a quality, wide touch screen. The Internet connectivity features are among the most impressives since the gadget comes packed with the Safari web browser for portable devices, and allows for wi-fi connectivity.

Everything seems to be done so easily, in a phone that should save you a lot of time once you learn how to take advantage of all the bells and whistles. The following couple of videos explain this in more detail.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Interesting how Apple is trying to dissociate iPhone from the iPod, since a lot of the consumer talk has been about “a new iPod you can make calls on” since word on the iPhone came out.

Click here to view the embedded video.