Google Prefetching for Mozilla Browsers kv9 writes “A post on GoogleBlog reveals that Google has enabled results prefetching for Mozilla based browsers, which means that the top results of queries are being loaded in the background and pages will load faster. More info on the Mozilla Prefetching FAQ and the Google Webmaster FAQ”
Open Source Social Bookmarking Service comforteagle writes “This past week I launched an open source social bookmarking competitor to delicio.us - de.lirio.us. After running it for a while open to the public it appears to be running relatively bug free so this is the invitation to the Slashdot crowd. The code is entirely open and the content is cc licensed, so I’m sure it won’t take too long for folks to cook up some additional tools aside from the blogging feature. For those not familiar the meme is social bookmarking, which is basically a service to share bookmarks publicly instead (or in addition to) only within your browser. There are lots of other additional benefits, but that’s the gist of it. More details here and here.”
Tom Foremski writes for SiliconValleyWatcher:
I was at HP Labs Tuesday morning, chatting with Josh Tyler and Philippe Debaty about their work in trying to determine how people will use camera phones. A primary goal of HP Labs is to be able to predict novel uses of consumer technologies and develop supporting computer products or services.
But in today’s world, these researchers are realising that they cannot do things the old way, and that they have to get out of the labs.
If you want to discover aggregate social behaviors around photos and sharing, take a look at Flickr’s millions of users. There are communities on Flickr that could not have been predicted. And this is true of all true platforms–in the current sense of technology platforms for groups: unpredictable behaviors and communities will arise.
Using 20 HP Labs researchers is not going to reveal many, if any, novel uses. How many people using a platform technology would it take to flag the potential for large aggregate social behaviors, I asked? ..
Clearly, these researchers will need to change their approach. They should be out on the Internet crouching in the bushes and taking notes on what people are doing, and then determine new product development. In fact, these should be boom times for anthropologists. Surely, now is their time(!)
Spotting potentially large aggregate social behaviors, and being the first to monetise them, is going to be the name of the game in the consumer digital space.
David Weinberger writes:
We’ve organized knowledge into trees, from Aristotle to Linnaeus to Dewey. You get a tree by doing the basic thing of lumping and splitting, and then splitting the lumps until you get to a lump that is too unitary or miscellaneous to bear any more splitting. But lumping and splitting has been constrained by physical limitations. For example:
1. A thing has to go in one pile or another. For Aristotle, this was expressed as the Law of Identity (A is A and A is not not-A), a pretty basic rule.
2. The way we lump and split is the same for everyone: If you own a clothing store and separate it into men’s and women’s departments, it’s separated that way for everyone who enters.
3. The lumping and splitting is done by experts.
4. The person who owns the stuff also owns the organization of the stuff. You can’t come into the clothing store and rearrange it the way that suits you.
5. Lumping and splitting results in a neat and clean order. It’s clean-edged.
But now we’re digitizing information, resulting in a third order of order in which we break the rules of real-world order:
1. Things can go in more than one pile - You put your e-store’s hiking boots under shoes, men’s and women’s apparel, outdoor wear, popular items, items on sale, etc.
2. The arrangement can be different for each person.
3. You or your social group are the experts.
4. Users get to control the organization of the stuff.
5. Messiness is a virtue on the Web.
You can see much of this in the rise of tagging: Users create the metadata and anyone can figure out how to sort through it and organize it. It’s out of the hands of the owners of the stuff being classified.
So, what I’m saying is that we’re moving from thinking that the right way to arrange â and understand â things is to figure out the taxonomic tree ahead of time. Instead, make a big pile of leaves, each with lots of metadata, and allow users to add more metadata and to sort and categorize it as they need.
But there are problems with this, especially with regard to tags:
- One word can have many meanings, and one meaning can have many words. As tagging gets more popular, that’ll be a bigger issue.
- If we form social groups based around how we use words, we run the risk of fragmenting ourselves further, this time around semantics.
- Folksonomies can reinforce homogeneity.
John Robb has a wish: “Here’s a product I would like to use. When I was at UserLand we used a group instant outliner to coordinate our efforts. It was very, very helpful. The only problem was the desktop to desktop synchronization. One way to fix that would be to offer a group outliner as a subscription-based Web service. A group instant outliner that works like Google Maps (as an example of the real-time, responsive, visually intensive Web service) would be amazing. Let me say it again: it would amazing.
WSJ writes:
Four years ago, Jimmy Wales launched a free online encyclopedia that anyone could edit. Now, Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Web, and Mr. Wales is building on its success with a new venture. This time, he intends to make a buck.
Mr. Wales’s closely held company Wikia Inc. has begun promoting its first for-profit endeavor, an ad-supported site called Wikicities.com that is based on the concept behind Wikipedia. Through Wikicities, groups of Web users can create their own free Web sites and fill them with, well, nearly anything. Among the topics being discussed on the nascent site: Macintosh computers, college hockey and real-world cities like Los Angeles, Beijing and Calgary.
A9.com with Syndicated Search joeykiller writes “Search Engine Watch reports that Amazon now lets you add your own search to their A9 search engine. Users can opt-in to use additional search engines in addition to A9.com’s own when searching. Amazon has chosen to use an extension of RSS 2.0 for this, and hopes that this format will enable search syndication in the same way RSS did for content. Several add-on searches are available already, among them New York Times, Wikipedia and NASA.”
Dave Pollard develops concept of online collaboration tools pack:
Ideally, using a combination of1. Skype (free global VoIP telephony),
2. White-boarding (everyone online can see what anyone posts to the white-board),
3. Document-sharing and
4. Mindmapping or some similar session annotation tool (everyone can see what the group’s ’scribe’ has documented as the findings, decisions and next actions from the collaboration)would be a close approximation to an in-person collaborative session. But that’s a lot of technology to juggle on your screen, to hog and interfere with your bandwidth, and (if you opt for the more powerful tools in these categories) can also require some outlay of money. My experience has been (thanks in no small part to the valuable insights of online communication wizard Robin Good and Skypemaster Stu Henshall) that video-conferencing (seeing the people you’re talking with online) is a “nice to have” not a “need to have”, especially when bandwidth limitations force you to choose which applications to have running at any one time.
I am confident that, as bandwidth and processing power continue to expand, we will soon see:
- A single, free, reliable, easy-to-use, professional-looking application that will provide what I’ve called Simple Virtual Presence — the four applications listed above plus the option of videoconferencing (illustrated above), and
- A simple, free, easy-to-use collaboration space where the results of the online collaboration sessions, and a library of relevant resources and links, are stored, with wiki-like capability so it can be maintained by any and all in the group.
Paul Graham about good writing:
A lot of people ask for advice about writing. How important is it to write well, and how can one write better? In the process of answering one, I accidentally wrote a tiny essay on the subject.
I think it’s far more important to write well than most people realize. Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated.
Yahoo Fights Back in Battle With Google ChipGuy writes “Om Malik has a great analysis of how Yahoo is fighting back the Google assault. ‘A handful of blog-evangelists, a couple of key buys - (Odd Post and Flickr) have turned Yahoo from a dot.has.been to the new darling of the chattering classes.’ Yahoo’s new initiatives like Yahoo 360 are even apprently making Yahoo Web 2.0 compliant.”
Paul Boutin writes @ Slate:
Editors and relatives often ask me if there’s an application that lets you scrawl notes on a Web page. Instead of e-mailing a link to a news story, you could circle what you think is important before passing it on; rather than bookmarking a page, you could slap on a sticky note. The funny thing is, that kind of Web page annotation software has been around since before Netscape. Yet hardly anyone uses it, and none of the top browser makers has embraced it.Read a full story
In 2001, Microsoft bought Web page markup technology from a company called E-Quill but hasn’t incorporated any of its features into Internet Explorer. The iMarkup toolbar, which debuted to rave reviews in 2000, hasn’t gotten much buzz since. You can still get iMarkup — a 30-day trial is free and it costs $39.95 if you want to keep it after that. One screenshot says it all: You can highlight parts of a page, post sticky notes, draw freehand, and insert arrows, links, file attachments, and sound bites. Taking notes on the Slate home page won’t change what other surfers see. But when you revisit the page, iMarkup will remember what you wrote and slap your notes atop the live site. In one simple step, you can e-mail your annotations (or a screenshot of your annotations) to a friend. Using a free iMarkup plug-in, they can then view your notes overlaid atop the live site.
After playing around with iMarkup for just five minutes, I was convinced that it’s a useful tool. But after a few more days of tinkering, I realized that Web page annotation has flopped because it doesn’t offer a compelling reason to change how we use computers. You could take notes in iMarkup, but it’s more straightforward to jot down your thoughts in Word. You could also use it to collaborate with colleagues, but it’s easier to send an e-mail or instant message. Then it hit me — there is a compelling reason to scribble on Web pages and news stories. This is the killer app for political bloggers.
Oracle’s Larry Ellison discusses with BusinessWeek his plan for taking on SAP in the corporate-applications software market:
Jack Welch said unless you’re No. 1 or No. 2 in a business, you should get out. We’re No. 2 now, but we don’t want to be No. 2. We want to be No. 1. Culturally, it’s difficult for people at Oracle who are accustomed to being the leader in databases to play catch-up behind SAP. They’re a formidable company, but we have a shot at catching them.
Google’s Library Up and Running An anonymous reader writes “It seems that Google Print results are beginning to appear on searches. For those who don’t know, Google has been scanning from libraries from some of the world’s greatest universities in order to compile a freely accessible online library. An easy way to turn up these results is to simply type “book”, and then whatever you want to search for. For instance, book origin of species will turn up the full text of Charles Darwin’s controversial treatise. 20,000 leagues, Oliver Twist and Pride and Prejudice and m o r e are all there in full. It’ll be interestin to see how publishers deal with this if demand for these books declines. In the meantime, would anyone like to point out any good books?” Hopefully, Google can also start to index some books that are being released in the Creative Commons/alternative open licenses.
Software Development Practices At Google prostoalex writes “It’s widely known that Google allows its engineers to spend 20% of paid work time on personal projects (that are nevertheless considered property of the company). But how does the practice actually work? Joe Beda provides a helpful insight in his blog, pointing out other interesting software development practices at Google. The code database is open for everyone, the snippets and pieces are documented and one is encouraged to re-use existing code. The intranet is transparent to the max and the company accepts the fact that there’s more than way to accomplish something, so a better method is always welcomed. Interesting to note that just like Hawaiian shirt days in Office Space, the 20% per projects are “actively encouraged” - Joe suspects his review ratings might slip if he doesn’t have one soon.”
News.com writes about the old technology that’s suddently become the hottest new thing:
Start-ups and industry giants such as Microsoft continue to devise newfangled systems for delivering desktop-like applications over the Web. But search giant Google has taken a different path, using older technology to build its newest applications such as Google Maps and Gmail.John Reynolds adds:That’s prompted developers to take a second look at old-hat technologies that have been kicking around on the Web since the 1990s, such as JavaScript and Dynamic HTML.
Those older technologies–such as the JavaScript scripting language, the Cascading Style Sheets recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for applying styles to multiple Web pages, and other coding bells and whistles–are sometimes grouped under the marketing term Dynamic HTML, or DHTML.
Lee Gomes wrote in WSJ: “What’s new is that Ajax lets them do so in a speedier way. In the past, to change even a small part of a Web page required reloading the entire page. But Ajax knows to fetch only the part of the screen that needs changing — like the edges of the Google map window as you move around…Because less information is being sent from the main server, things move more quickly. That takes Ajax applications a big step toward the Holy Grail of having the kinds of speed and responsiveness in Web-based programs that’s usually associated only with desktop software, like Microsoft Office.”The basic message of AJaX is that modern browsers, through a combination of JavaScript and XmlHttpRequest, provide an advanced client that allows you to write rich client interfaces without the need to deploy a plugin.
So far so good, but when you look at the mechanisms that are currently available to take advantage of AJaX, a boatload of JavaScript embedded in an HTML file, you will probably experience a sickening feeling of deja vu all over again.
AJaX totally blows the idea of seperating presentation markup and code snippets. The result brings back memories of pre-custom tag JSP pages… a little puddle of HTML markup embedded in an ocean of Java code (only this time it’s JavaScript).
The promise of AJaX is exciting, but until tools and frameworks automate the generating of “AJaX” we’re back to some pretty ugly and potentially buggy UI code.
Molly Wood alarms that “Google’s going to build a Web-based thin client-type hosted environment-slash-operating system replacement.”
Think about Gmail, which, in a broadband situation, is probably more responsive than Outlook; and Google Maps, which doesn’t show any signs of redrawing as you drag the image all over your screen. That’s the power of Ajax, which removes most of the server communication, almost making you forget you’re using the Web. Now think about what would happen if you had a word processor, a spreadsheet app, a photo editor, an instant messenger, a browser, a music jukebox, and any other “software application” running inside a Web framework that’s as fast and responsive as any desktop you’ve ever used. Now imagine being able to access that environment from any Web-enabled computer (or device), anywhere. Remember Bill Gates saying, 10 years ago, that traditional software was dead and that all software would eventually be delivered over the Internet? Well, I think Google was listening.
13 Things That Do Not Make Sense Michael Brooks writes “New Scientist is reporting on 13 things which do not make sense. It’s an interesting article about 13 areas in which observations do not line up with current theory. From the placebo effect to dark matter, it’s a list of areas in need of additional research. Explanations could lead to significant breakthroughs… or at least new and different errors in scientific observations. Now there are 20 interesting problems for Slashdotters to work on, once you combine these with the seven Millennium Problems!”
No Secret Plan at Google? Lloyd Dalton writes “A number of smart folks have speculated that Google might leverage its computational resources to create some kind of massive online application delivery platform. Here’s why they are probably wrong.” One of more intelligent insights into Google, and it’s pleasantly devoid of theories of Google taking over the world.
Richard Koman at SiliconValleyWatcher picks curious topic. Annalee Newitz believes that porn was behind VCR industry development and now it does the the same thing with web. I heard that handheld devices and WiFi are widely used by some porn users because of virtual anonymity. You do not have ISP who can track what sites you are visiting. Instead your handheld device is anonymous at WiFi network (to be correct, the same thing is with your notebook). So will porn boost a handheld industry as well?
EFF evangelist and techsex columnist Annalee Newitz is holding forth at Etech on the history of the camouflaging of pornography and sex toys, and how this drives development of free speech and privacy technology. She starts with the equation: “Everybody wants porn + nobody will admit it + everybody loves tech = innovating ways to look without being seen.”
One of the driving forces behind VCRs was the porn industry. The VCR became a way of camouflauging porn consumption. Before 1976 you had to go to a theatre — local people knew you were going to theaters — a very public experience. Now people could watch dirty movies in their own homes. The adult industry flocked to this new technology. A cheap way of disseminating porn.
Meanwhile back on the Internet, quality wasn’t very good. (She shows an ASCII art image from www.asciipr0n.com.) “Porn built the Internet. It’s such an obvious use of the medium; because it’s so private and widely available. It broke one of the prongs of the Miller rule (contemporary community standards): it’s unclear what the “community” is when you’re downloading and uploading to and from everywhere in the world.
Private past/anonymous futures. It’s likely that Congress could require porn sites to geographically locate users. So some workarounds:
- prepaid porn cards
- user-friendly anonymous proxies (Anonymizer)
- Anonymizing networks like Tor (”Roger did not design this for porn; but it is my prediction that people will use it for porn.”)
- Anonymous IM - Off-the-record messaging: www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/
Annalee’s bottom line is that “what’s good for porn is good for free speech.” And: “Today’s porn tools are tomorrow’s human rights protections.”
Tom Foremski writes at SiliconValleyWatcher about search spam aka “search engine optimization” and tells us about Become, company who runs shopping search site Become.com. Its founders, Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun, claim to have a spam-proof ranking technology, called Affinity Index Ranking (AIR). And that’s only for starters.
They applied for patents for their technologies. And just in case somebody does figure out how to influence its search results, they also applied for patents for… potential spamming technique!
“Its an insurance policy,” Mr Yang smiles. “We can sue the spammers for patent violation if we have to. I don’t know if that will work, nobody has tried it and if Yeogirl is right, we won’t need to.”Michael, Yeogirl. My congratulations, gentlemen! It’s a really brilliant move! And thank you Tom for this post.
