Archive for August, 2009

Can the Yahoo handshake help Microsoft Vine?

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

After Bing, it is Vine on the Horizon for Microsoft. Is anybody taking notice? Not Google for sure.

To begin with Vine is still in beta phase and is available by invitation only at vine.net. At first glance, Vine looks like a personal alert system where your group of friends and families get to know about your whereabouts and anything that might warrants an alert.

Vine will get you your personal dashboard and you can receive about important alerts and vital information including articles from 20,000 news and public safety sources. You can send and receive alerts as you wish – from anybody in your group or from any of the sources mentioned above. The good part is that the Vine personal alert system is connected to your mobile. So if you are in an alien land and there are no phones – and you need to contact your friends and family immediately, Vine comes in here – You can send a mobile alert to your family and friends from your computer.

Sending an alert is also location and device agnostic – you can send an alert from your mobile phone or even e-mail or other applications.

The Yahoo factor!

Those of us who keep a tab on the search engines have a fair idea about the Bingoo! , but it is still a blackbox stuff as far as Vinoo! is concerned. But, considering the social spread and Web DNA of Yahoo, Vine should be getting a jump-start by utilizing Yahoo’s existing podium. It remains to be seen as to how far hand goes in the glove with Vine and Yahoo. The radar must be working overtime in the cellars of Facebook & MySpace.

Pricing & Availability

The basic service is free
If you want to receive alerts on your mobile phone standard messaging charges apply
Vine is currently available only in US.

Microsoft Vine in the news

***”It’s been awhile since Microsoft introduced a game-changing social Web application, but Vine — a service that’s debuting today with a beta test in Seattle — could be a contender.” Seattle Times
*** Microsoft debuts Vine in Seattle: Twitter+Facebook on steroids — Seattle Times
* **Microsoft announces Vine, a location-based service for emergencies — VentureBeat
* **Microsoft Vine To Connect Family, Friends When Crisis Hits — TechCrunch
* **Meet Vine, Microsoft’s superhero software — CNET
* **Microsoft’s Vine: Emergency Social Networking — PCWorld
* **Microsoft throws a Vine to disaster victims — The Wall Street Journal
* **Microsoft’s deep-rooted Vine isn’t just another social network — Tech Blog Plus

System Requirements for Microsoft Vine Beta

Operating system: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32-bit edition only), Windows Vista (32-bit
or 64-bit editions)
Processor: 1 GHz or higher
Memory: 1 GB of RAM or higher for Windows Vista, 512 MB for Windows XP.
Hard disk space: 100 MB for Vine and 500 MB for the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5
with Service Pack 1
Resolution: Minimum 1024×768
Internet connection: Broadband Internet access is required (provided separately); charges may
apply
Browser: Internet Explorer 6 or later, Firefox 3.0 or later
Graphics or video card: A graphic card with Microsoft DirectX 9 and 128 MB of graphic memory
is recommended

Tags: Facebook, MS Vine, Vine, Yahoo and Vine
Posted in Business over Web, Internet marketing, Trends! | No Comments »

Need to Blog while watching TV…Use your Remote!

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Lazybones must be giggling…Now we can set the couches and the blogosphere ablaze at the same time.

None other than IBM is trying to get a patent on a Remote – which will enable you to post a blog about the program you are watching. So, while you are with ‘Friends’ , you are connected to a blogging server and simultaneously in touch with other bloggers – all in real time.

The neat part according to IBM folks – You can send a snapshot of the program you are watching – Are there Copyright crusaders listening?

Its a long way before it becomes a reality but this flick is sure to tickle a lot of TV addicts who wished they had more time for something creative.

Is this going to be a dud or a new blogging Industry ? I don’t have the remotest idea. Do you?

So long from CB Corridor…Look out for more Internet spice in the coming days!

Tags: blogging by remote, IBM, Remote blogging
Posted in Business over Web, Trends! | No Comments »

Twitter – Blabbersphere or semantics goldmine…

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Everyone is going for it – 140 char tweets. Consumers, supporters, disgruntled men and women, corporate honchos, and big time authority bloggers are hurling it out at a furious pace ….

Image credit: ablvienna.files.wordpress.com

Out of every 140 chars – only about 80 of them have some meaning – The rest 60, web-junk….That’s what the stats say.

Now, the legion of web marketers are thinking, as to how these 80 chars can be tapped for some intelligence – if it is at all there. Web semantics holds a bright light for the tweets out there. We all know that Twitter is one of the first places to look for any developing story – be it the Iranian elections, the Hudson river United airlines landing, or a simple remark from Matt about Google Caffeine…Twitter is the the most democratic billboard of the web.

Image credit: sylvianickerson.ca

The sweet stuff will be – if the tweets can be bundled into blocks of information and this blocks of trends / info are visible graphically. So, for example, you are looking for the latest on MJ burial, then in one corner – Let’s say ‘Tweet Corner’ – One balloon / 3D cube exists for the tag ‘MJ burial’. The size of the info-block will obviously be in the ratio of the number of tweets & the number of meaningful characters in the tweets…

So long from CopperBridge corridors..

Tags: semantics, tweet, Twitter, twitter chatter
Posted in Business over Web, They Said It! | No Comments »

Trademarking ‘Tweet’ – Its not Twitter

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Who else would want to trademark ‘Tweet’ ? Well, its not Twitter for sure. After a couple of tries, Twitter failed to trademark its own creation.

Image Credit: www.trampolinebranding.com

When Twitter requested for the reasons of denial – it was a surprise to them too.

Apparently, many other companies had applied for trademarks of terms which were very similar to ‘tweet’. According to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) “Other trademark applications by the firms TweetMarks, Cotweet and Tweetphoto, and said there was a “likelihood of confusion.” ”

So, it seems that the followers have overtaken the leader as far as ‘tweet’ is concerned, But Biz Stone, founder of Twitter was far from worried and even appreciated the legion of twitter related firms like TweetDeck, TweetMeme, Tweetie, BackTweets, Tweetboard -who have been instrumental in making ‘Tweet’ a household name….

Tags: tweet, TweetDeck, Tweetmeme, Twitter
Posted in CopperBridge Corridor!, Digital Advertising | 1 Comment »

After Bing, Its Google’s caffeine..

Monday, August 17th, 2009

What about Caffeine? Why more of it? Well, it seems Google had enough of the Bingoo stuff and decided to launch a Search engine platform of its own. The beta phase caffeine is set to roll out very soon – and we can be sure of some excellent timing by the Google guys – No Google dance this time..

By some leaked noises from Google – Caffeine will vouch for a greater indexing speed, more accurate results (better spam filtering), more exhaustive results and some undisclosed features (very much expected).

So what was the need for another Caffeine Bing?

Ben Parr at Mashable has covered some known corners of the new Caffeine while trying to test it – and it seems that the new Google has scored over the old master on almost all of the accounts..

[A] Speed –> Caffeine is twice as fast as the old Classic for the most popular of keywords

[B] Accuracy –> Caffeine scored over the Old Google in terms of accuracy, although it does seem to be deprived of universal search features at this point. So, don’t be disappointed if you don’t find your favorite conference pics…It might be just on its way

[C] News results and current events have a much faster arrival in Caffeine as compared to the Old one. Bing is there but can be counted as ‘Also ran…’ for the time being.

[D] In terms Indexing size , Caffeine is miles ahead of anybody else in the playing field including its younger sibling…

Tags: Caffeine, Google, Google Caffeine
Posted in CopperBridge Corridor!, Googling, Search Engines | No Comments »

What is Bing xRank?

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Movie Stars, Musicians, Renowned Shakers and Movers, Billion dollar French Riviera Squatters …..and all those richie-rich who make heads turn are the focus of xRank. Bing algo ranks these hot-shots based on the most number of searches.

xRank will let you search for your favorite icon and will even ..

Tell you their popularity movement chart (how they fared in the last 6 months)
Give you a snapshot of a celebrity’s videos, images, movies, albums, and more
Tell you the most recent associations (patch-up / break-up) of these cultural icons. Thumbnail photos at the bottom of xRank show you the associates, friends, enemies, and romances, of the person you’re interested in.
xRank even shows the upward / downward slide in the search popularity of these people through an arrow graphs

While the work on xRank is still in the beta phase (just Like the Google Labs product Google Trends), we can expect a much larger scope in the coming days…

So, xRank is a great tool for celebrity trackers and paparazzi s..

Tags: bing, Google, google trends, xrank
Posted in CopperBridge Corridor!, Googling, Search Engines | No Comments »

Why is Yahoo such a small site for Google?

Friday, August 7th, 2009

ell, i was doing some back-link analysis for one of my clients and it was leading me nowhere. While i was about to try something else, I tried something very simple – out of sheer curiosity….I was anxious to know the number of pages that Yahoo had (that were indexed by Google). So, of i went to get that million number.

I had the faintest of idea what i got…

While using the site operator – site:www.yahoo.com –> Here is what is Got: 239 pages

While surprised by the result, i tried the same thing for www.cnn.com, thousand times smaller than Yahoo

While using the site operator – site:www.cnn.com –> The number of indexed pages in Google : 264,000 pages

So, is it that – Google ignored Yahoo pages or

Yahoo cares a s..t about Google….Either way, it was a good discovery for me.

Tags: Google, Google indexing, Yahoo
Posted in Googling | No Comments »