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November 1st, 2009UncategorizedThis is one for the many web socialites out there. In general terms, it can be said that Nearby Social is a solution whereby you can meet offline those you interact with online. For example, using NearbySocial you can meet up with other travelers that are in your same network when you are in the airport, about to set off. This is especially useful if the flight has been delayed.
The implementation of such as service is accomplished in the most effective way of all – through Facebook. That is, you procure and install an app and then you are ready to be notified when like-minded individuals are in attendance. Moreover, the site will let you figure out with whom you have crossed paths before via a supple functionality.
Taking into account how popular Facebook is, and how popular it is certain to remain for quite a time yet, any tool that lets users of the network expand their contact from the web to the real world is certain to arouse interest.
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October 31st, 2009UncategorizedFederal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz recently warned online ad companies that they didn't have much time left to prove they could protect people's privacy. Now, he's added that he would like to see marketers get Web users' express consent before tracking them online in order to serve targeted ads. "Opt-out isn't illegal necessarily, but I think the better practice is opt-in," he said this weekend in an interview that aired on C-SPAN.
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October 30th, 2009UncategorizedGoogle’s Street View recently hit the UK streets, and an angry throng of Brits has hit back. It happened in the wealthy village of Broughton: Seeing the Street View car driving through town, residents formed a human chain to stop the car and hassled the driver until hGoogle’s Street View recently hit the UK streets, and an angry throng of Brits has hit back. It happened in the wealthy village of Broughton: Seeing the Street View car driving through town, residents formed a human chain to stop the car and hassled the driver until he turned around.
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October 29th, 2009Uncategorized
In their own words
“Coupious is a mobile phone app that gives you coupons and deals for businesses around your geographic location. No need to search for offers with a browser, no need to find zip codes, no reason to memorize SMS short codes. Simply run the application on your cell phone, watch it automatically retrieve coupons via GPS, and click 'Use now' to save money!”
Why it might be a killer
It is an incredibly practical service. I am surprised nobody thought about it before. My compliments to the team for implementing such a functionality.
What it does
This is a new mobile phone app that plays out a role that is certainly useful. In essence, it will provide you with a list of coupons and deals for businesses that are in you close vicinity, retrieve them via GPS, tap the “Use now” button and then show them to the cashier.
This application can be procured and installed at no cost. As a matter of fact, the user is not even required to register. Just installing the application and launching it will do the trick.
The search can be kept as circumscribed as you wish – it will look up coupons not only in your city, it can actually search for coupons that can be employed just around the corner if that is what you want it to do.
Supported devices include the iPhone, iPod Touch and Android platforms. Support for Blackberry, Windows Mobile and webOS is underway. Actually, users are asked to vote on the platform they think should be supported next. If you have any favorite, just visit the “Feedback” page and cast your vote.
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October 28th, 2009UncategorizedPresented by a team that is based in the United Kingdom, Timetric is a service that aims to let the public at large make sense of the flood of data that characterizes the modern world. Think about all the numeric data that you come across on a daily basis: prices, temperature, rates, taxes… This solution is there in order to let you put all that into perspective and finally analyze the way it moves as time goes by.
As it is explained online, the technical expression for such a service is “time series analysis”. Whenever the data is updated, that should be immediately reflected on the analysis itself, and new conclusions arrived at. Suitably enough, you can set alerts in order to be informed should any value you are interested in fluctuate.
If you want to get started, you will be able to resort to data that has already been collected by the team from sources such as the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve System. Alternatively, you can import your own data either by hand or by uploading an Excel file. Note that the service is still in beta, so don’t expect everything to work flawlessly. And if you come across something that should not be there do make a pointy of contacting the team so that they can set that to right.
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October 27th, 2009Uncategorized
Fast140 helps you test as well as improve your typing speed.
You can login using twitter oAuth. You would be given around 140 characters to type. Once you are done typing, your speed would be calculated instantly and added to your score sheet.
Based on your typing speed you are assigned a rank. The app even tells you the percentage of people you are ahead of with respect to typing speed.
Note: When you login to this application for the first time, the site would make you automatically follow it’s own twitter account @fast140 and also a promotional tweet describing the service would be pushed to your twitter timeline.
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October 26th, 2009Uncategorized
Last time around we heard of a worm spreading on Facebook it was called Koobface and it was causing a lot of problems for users. This time around it’s called Boface.BJ but it has already affected millions of users and that’s only expected to grow in the coming months. This morning PandaLabs malware analysis and detection laboratory released a report stating that it just discovered a new variant of the Boface.BJ worm which has already affected an estimated two million users, half of which are in the United States.
Right now the growth appears to be negative (as the chart below depicts) but it is projected to spread to millions of users in the coming month, growing over 100 percent per quarter. It has not been stated whether or not the software is actually damaging computers or if it was simply created for the purpose of maximizing the number of infected users.The way users become infected is pretty standard. A user will receive a message (like the one pictured below) from a friend which encourages them to click on a link. Once clicked, they will end up at a site called “YuoTube” (a common misspelling for “YouTube”) which will then prompt them to download a video player.
Four hours after the software is downloaded, the user’s Facebook account will be hijacked and a message will be blasted out to all their friends. It’s the same model that practically all of the spammers and hackers are currently using on Facebook. What’s interesting is that few of the viruses so far have actually been damaging for users’ computers.
While the worm appears to be under control for the time being, these worms tend to grow overtime and the developers behind them tend to make minor adjustments each time that will assist in their viral growth. The advice from PandaLabs is to avoid clicking suspicious links and keep an eye open for unfamiliar websites. In other words: don’t get tricked!
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October 25th, 2009UncategorizedThere are so many videos on the WWW right now that for some it poses a difficulty. They find so much data overwhelming. I must admit that I feel that way to a considerable extent. What’s more, even though I adore music I am not that fond of music videos. There are some exceptions, of course. I have seen videos like “Stand By Me” by Oasis that add a lot to the song, but there are not many like it. Then there are some videos that raise a smile like “When You Say Nothing At All” by Ronan Keating from the Notting Hill soundtrack which are also worth watching. I wish there were a way to have access to only the pick of the bunch. And, you know, that is exactly what this service enables the user to do.
Generally speaking, it stands as a portal where knowledgeable folks (named “eGuiders” in the site’s parlance) let the rest know about what is worth a look online. These are grouped by category, and as you can imagine the featured ones include “Comedy”, “Viral”, “Animation” and “Music” among many others.
On the other hand, if you feel you have discovered a gem and wish to share it with the world at large, you can do so through the site. Who knows, maybe you can even become an eGuider yourself and make your voice be heard by fellow internauts.
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October 24th, 2009Uncategorized
There were a couple of stories over the weekend and today about the capture on Google StreetView of images of a naked toddler. Here’s the original UK newspaper report:
The Independent on Sunday alerted the internet search giant after finding the image of the toddleThere were a couple of stories over the weekend and today about the capture on Google StreetView of images of a naked toddler. -
October 23rd, 2009Uncategorized
FeedMyTwitter is a twitter auto posting application that helps you predefine what twitter updates you want to be fed into your timeline.
You can send automatic tweets based on categories such as movie quotes, funny messages etc. You can also specify RSS feeds the way you do with twitterfeed for updating your blog RSS feed on twitter.
If you happen to make a story or some other smart marketing for your product on twitter you can have custom messages updated randomly to your twitter timeline.
Once you login to the site, you can start or stop the service anytime. You get to specify the time interval after which random tweets need to be posted.