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So, yeah I like maps.
Google Maps is one of favorite online map sites and they have just added a neat little feature called “Street View.”
Street View allows you to see panoramic views from the street in most major cities (well, ok, Manhattan is all good, but in say, Queens you only have the major streets… and if you are in Omaha, NE, don’t waste you time either). it’s kind of neat and really allows you to get up close and personal, maybe find that store you are going to in that are of town your don’t know too well. On the other hand Amazon used to have this exact type of mapping and street view type of functionality for their short-lived map program and no one really found any use for that one either. Plus the pictures are, I would guess, about 10 months old.
*The picture does not represent where I really live
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In the beginning there was Archie. The there was Veronica and Jughead. No, we aren’t talking about the Senior Class at Riverdale High, those are the names of what are considered to be the first 3 search engines. Since those days, Search Engines have come a long way.
Most people when searching on the web today go for the biggies- Google.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, these are your typicalsearch engines, pulling up a long list of entries to search form.
But now there is a new group of search engines hitting the block. Visual search engines are becoming all the rage these days, engines like KartOO and Quintura present us with a whole new way to search for information. Instead of listing out entries and possible suggestions, it visually lumps thing together, showing you related search terms you might want to consider or further research. While old folks like myself might not be totally about these new fangled searches, we all might want to just take a moment to familiarize ourselves with them, you know so we don’t look totally lost when chatting with those Millenials.
(Archie picture courtesy of Robby Reed’s www.dialbforblog.com.)
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We all know that advertisers are getting a little out of control. They aren’t limited to billboards and the likes anymore and they are turning up in more and more places. If you use Gmail you are probably familiar with the text based ads that pop up on the side and are related to your email. A little creepy, a bit Big Brother-esq; apparently this is just the start.
A company has filed a patent today for a Internet Protocol Phone that would be able to display ads based on your personal preferences as well as where you are calling.
The phone would download internet ads based on your information and then display the ads when you make a phone call. Ideally the phone would be subsidized by the company that would be in charge of sending you the ads o off set your phone bill. The original article and finding of the patent came from Russell Shaw over at ZDNet.com
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So many things to write about, where to start? Okay, let’s pick up from my last entry- I am at a conference this week and while typing that last entry from my phone was actually in a meeting about “legal†and “illegal†use of the internet and information found on the internet in admissions and, by extension, the hiring of new employees. Basically this is how it works: If you apply to a school or a job and you think everything is going really well: you passed the initial screening process, aced the interview and are just waiting for that call with the offer, well, keep waiting, cause they are still getting information on you. You can bet that once you walk out of that door from your interview, that interviewer you just met with is going to get back on to their computer, open up Google and type your name into that search box.
And it doesn’t stop there, after they’ve Googled you they’ll probably search for your MySpace page, Friendster Profile, Facebook Page, Personal Blog etc. Now this may be great for the number of hits you get on your pages, but you know that video you pjust posted of yourself on MySpace, you know the one, you drinking an entire bottle of Cuervo in one gulp, punching someone’s grandmother in the face and then throwing up before you black out, well, they just saw that too and all of that “community service†that you have listed under interests on your resume starts to look more like “court-ordered community service.†That comment you wrote on your friends blog about what a great idea it was to play hookie from work the other day cause you hate your boss and much prefer to take hits from a gravity bong then listen to the corporate mumbo-jumbo that spews from his mouth, yeah, they’ll see that too. So, when they call you and tell you they have decided to go in another direction don’t be surprised.
Remember, the internet is all public domain, you are posting for the world to see and now your greatest desire for everyone and their grandmother to read your blog has become your worst nightmare. Oh, and if you thought you could go back and sanitize it all, get rid of the blogs you wrote divulging company secrets, yeah, thanks to Google caching they are all still around, floating in the ether. Now go forth and cleanse your pages, pull the naughty videos from MySpace and the embarrassing pictures from FaceBook, you know the ones I mean, the ones that are going to cause that law firm you just interviewed with to reconsider hiring you, forcing you to look for a job at 1-800-LAWYER instead.
Okay, you are done reading now, I know your fingers are twitching, let me help you out- Just click here and see what you find out about yourself.
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This entry was written by Orlando Jetblue
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I’m obsessive about making lists. That doesn’t mean I actually do the tasks on the list, but it’s nice to know I have written them down in 20 different places.
Lately, I’ve been using a task list widget on Google Homepage to keep track of personal tasks. For work items, I just keep on open Word document or for more immediate tasks I make a note in my Outlook calendar. But all are very unsatisfying. The Google widget doesn’t tell me what I’ve done (just what I have left to do), Outlook is very annoying, and Word is bare bones. So I went hunting for an online solution.
The best site I’ve found so far has been Remember the Milk, which offers a fair amount of functionality, but not enough to drive me crazy. You can specify tasks in a variety of categories that you define, and either set definite due dates for those tasks or not. It’s free and there don’t appear to be any annoying ads (so I have no idea what the business model is…ads to come, maybe?). The site keeps track of when you’ve completed tasks and can even email reminders and let you share parts of your list.