With millions of Google searches performed every day, it makes sense that what people are searching for can be a good indicator of what has captured the interest of the U.S. and the world.

That’s exactly what Google Trends does: it tells you what’s currently popular on the search engine via its Hot Trends feature, which displays how popular the search is and graphs out the volume of searches over time. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last few weeks, Facebook (Facebook) has been removing regional networks. Silicon Valley? New York City? Peoria, IL? They have been slowly stripped from Facebook, to the dismay of many. The biggest complaint from users? They want to find their friends by location when they travel.

Facebook’s heard the complaints and they understand the value of finding friends by region. So Facebook has decided to address that complaint by adding a filter to find friends by their hometown. This was announced via a Facebook wall post. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re the type that knows which date and time it is (I’m not, so I haven’t), you might have noticed that yesterday’s date was somewhat interesting: September 9th, 2009, or 09/09/09.

Furthermore, if you’d looked at Google’s Google homepage at exactly 09:09:09, you’d notice another new Google logo, which appeared only briefly; it was the same as the regular Google logo, but with inscription 09/09/09 09:09:09 added below.

Google’s logos have become quite interesting lately; recently, Google has displayed an odd logo that, together with a cryptic Twitter() message, formed a puzzle that proved quite a tough nut to crack. This latest numerological Google logo probably doesn’t have anything to do with the last one, but it’ll fit nicely into the “Google is run by a bunch of aliens� conspiracy theories.

Source: Mashable

You would almost think blogging was dead, the way headlines are dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general. I’ve always considered blogging to be a part of social media anyway, as the commenting factor lends to engagement between author and user.

But blogging is so five years ago right? It’s all about microblogging and status updates now isn’t it? If you think that’s the case, think again, because blogs can still drive big-time traffic to websites. An example of this has been illustrated by the launch of e-commerce site Alice.com.

If you are not familiar with Alice.com, it is a site where consumers can buy everyday household items like toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, diapers, etc., right from the manufacturers, rather than through middleman retailers. It launched in June, and by July it had doubled its traffic to 387,000 unique visitors, according to Compete. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of business and IT people still tend to think of anything related to the term Web 2.0 as being a consumer phenomenon. But over the last few years a wide variety of Web 2.0 technologies have wormed their way into the enterprise. The question that a lot of people have is just what has the business impact of all these Web 2.0 technologies actually been.

Cisco this week offered itself up as a prime example of a company that has derived substantial benefits from Web 2.0 applications and technologies in the enterprise. Cisco wants other companies to follow it lead because it is gearing up to bring a Web 2.0 collaboration platform to market and customers that adopt Web 2.0 technologies tend to consume a lot more network bandwidth, which usually means an upgrade to the network infrastructure. Read the rest of this entry »

27 days and counting. That’s how long it is until September 30th, when Google will start sending 100,000 invites for the early test of Google Wave.

The real-time communication platform has captured the imagination of countless communication, social media, and tech enthusiasts that want to get their hands on its game-changing features. It can import Twitter, provide real-time chat, play back past conversations, and even allows for drag-and-drop file uploads.

There are a lot of features, but it is unlike any other web product yet and thus takes time to learn. That’s why in July we asked an important question: is the world ready for Google Wave? Will there be widespread adoption, or will the ambitious project fall short of expectations? Will developers jump on the Wave bandwagon and build apps for it like they do for Twitter (Twitter) and Facebook (Facebook)?

Wave Is Almost Ready for Primetime

We have been monitoring the progress of Wave with our developer accounts, and we have to say: it’s come a long way. When I first used it, I experienced multiple crashes per session and the interface would bug out. And while these things still happen when I use Wave, the instances are far more sporadic.

Google (Google) has also been constantly informing developers of its updates to Wave. Today in fact, they just released a new update, codename “ChooChoo.� Here’s what was just added, according to the Wave team:

- Gadget insertion button in the editor toolbar (don’t need to use the Debug menu anymore!)

- Strikethrough button in the editor

- The extension management system has been upgraded (meaning any extensions you had previously installed will need to be re-installed)

- Minimized Waves will now flash green when new content is entered into the Wave

(if you are curious, a lot of the current work is moving towards improving our OT infrastructure, it isn’t something that will be obvious, other than the editor will be more robust)

Summary: Google is implementing a swath of minor back-end and UI improvements in rapid fashion in anticipation of the September 30th release. Things like small notifications, added formatting tools, and more efficient gadgets will all make the experience that much better when the end of the month rolls around.

So are you ready for Google Wave (Google Wave)? Because ready or not, it’s going to be making waves (pun intended) across the entire web very, very soon.

Source: Mashable

Last year, Google rolled out forms that link into Google Doc’s spreadsheets, providing elementary database-style form support for its online office suite. Forms basically let you add data to a spreadsheet without having to enter it directly into the spreadsheet itself, or even having to log in because you can add the data through a survey.

Today, Google is upgrading its Forms tool in Google Docs, adding a number of new features. Forms is basically a way to conduct a survey, with responses added automatically to a spreadsheet. Users now have a more compact, grid-like form in which to collect data. They can now quickly gather responses for a group of similar questions by simply labeling a few columns and creating as many rows as they like.

Summary charts also have clearer formatting of statistics and now support right-to-left text input, helping out those users whose written languages go from right-to-left. Developers can also integrate forms with their own applications and pre-populate a form with data.

Since its launch, Google forms has been an easy and accessible way to collect large amounts of data. Of course, the obvious use for forms is for surveys where you are collecting a massive amount of data and then need to make sense of it. You can either embed surveys into a blog post or site or you can share a link to the survey. Any responses are collected in a spreadsheet.

These new features make forms a little bit more user-friendly and attractive. Forms aren’t the most popular Google app out there

Try out Google Docs

The Apple/Google Voice fiasco just got more interesting. Toktumi, a startup that lets small businesses build office-caliber phone systems with their mobile phones and computers, just had its application Line2 approved by Apple — nearly three months after it was originally submitted. The powerful service allows business employees to assign two phone numbers to their iPhone: one that they can give to family and friends, and another that can be given to business contacts, with features that allow for call filtering and a professional-grade voicemail system. But it’s also notable for its many similarities to Google Voice, an application that Apple has kept out of the App Store for months now.

The story so far: late last July, Apple abruptly pulled all third party Google Voice applications from the App Store, explaining that they somehow were duplicating the iPhone’s native functionality. Later that day, we broke the news that Google’s official Google Voice client had been barred from the App Store, sparking a media storm and a FCC inquiry into Apple’s rationale for the ban. Read the rest of this entry »

Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say.

MIT research fish

MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish.

And it’s capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can’t, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school.

“Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance,” Alvarado said. “Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds — 200, 500 — and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements.”

MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, “Robotuna,” in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation — modeled after bass and trout — cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in Robotuna.

At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans.

“Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside,” said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. “We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply.”

The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level.

The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish.

MIT’s mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander.

Setting the Scene

Last year we took on an elderly, undocumented Access 97 database linked to a MySQL back-end. The task was to fix existing problems, upgrade to Access 2007 and Vista, and bring the functionality in line with current business practices. It would involve an independent re-build (mainly off site) so that existing operations could continue unhindered.

Concurrent upgrading changes weren’t ideal: when a problem arose, we had to work out whether it was due to a flaw in the original database, or 97 to 2007 differences, or some aspect of the Access to ODBC driver to MySQL linkage. But we had no choice and with Allen Browne’s comprehensive list of Access 2007 issues, we marched on. Read the rest of this entry »