June 15, 2009

New Notable Firefox Add-on

Filed as Guides with 9 comments

Everyday I find myself adding more and more apps to my Firefox experience. The latest is notable. It’s name? Notable.

An add-on for Firefox 3, the app lets you capture Web pages for feedback with a single click. You can leave notes for yourself or ask others for their opinions. read more

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June 14, 2009

Google to Search Twitter?

Filed as News with 12 comments

File this one under ‘we knew it was coming.’

There are unconfirmed reports that Google will build a search engine that will allow users to better filter results – similar to the process currently used for a Google blog search.

With a growing number of people relying on Twitter (and other micro-blogging sites) for the latest news and trends, a universal search solution is desperately needed.

It is probably safe to assume that the priority of search results will be determined by Twitter prowess, including the number of tweets and retweets you have, the frequency in which you post, current events, frequently used keywords, and, of course, the number of followers you have.

We already know that Google is crawling Twitter, now we just have to sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop.

As if you needed another reason to become a more active Twithead!

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June 12, 2009

Simon & Schuster Enters Scribd Store

I wrote about the Scribd Store and why it could be good for bloggers back in May. Well, that got even more weight today, as AP reports on publisher Simon & Schuster making titles available, and Hachette Book Group might join too.

Good news, because this means that more will turn to the Scribd Store, which in turn makes it easier for bloggers to benefit. We might very well see blog content branch out in the years to come, as spinoff products, not just repackaged for another platform and charged for. That’s as stupid as online newspaper paywalls.

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Twitter Is Verifying Accounts

Twitter has begun to verify accounts, and I guess this means it has left beta. So who’s getting verified? Michael Arrington (@arrington, but not @techcrunch interestingly enough), for one. This is Twitter’s explanation:

We’re starting with well-known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusion. (For example, well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies). We may verify more accounts in the future, but because of the cost and time required, we’re only testing this feature with a small set of folks for the time being. As the test progresses we may be able to expand this test to more accounts over the next several months.

I think this is a good thing, but let’s not forget that people without the verified badge (like me or @blogherald) still can be real…!

More on Techmeme as always.

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Land Grabs and Count Downs

Filed as Guides with 5 comments

20090612 qxd6wxfn85t38xnmerst4pmumr Land Grabs and Count Downs

Facebook Countdown

Ever feel like you are being manipulated into herd behavior?

Facebook is getting a lot of publicity right now about their vanity name deal. I am sure you have seen this already, if not check out this great post by the Facebook Queen, Mari Smith.

And then there is the domain name grab of top level domain extension liberalization which essentially means soon you might be seeing .coke, .apple, .microsoft and .garrett … well, maybe not the last one.

How do you spot a real gold rush? Which should we get up at early hours for and which should we let slide? read more

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Blogger Busted for Allegedly Encouraging Violence

Filed as News with 13 comments

Say what you want on your blog, just don’t encourage your readers to do bad things. That’s the message sent today when a political blogger was charged and arrested for encouraging his blog’s visitors to “to take up arms” against two Connecticut politicos. read more

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June 11, 2009

Google Philippines: Happy Independence Day

Filed as News with 6 comments

independence day 300x171 Google Philippines: Happy Independence Day

These don’t come often in the archilepago in South East Asia. June 12 2009 (GMT +8 so they’re advanced) is Independence Day in the Philippines. And Google is first to greet. The logo today represents the colors of the Philippine flag, three stars and the sun. The sun’s design is quite reminiscent as well of the tees made for WordCamp Philippines ’08 (video).
Very nice.

You can see this by going to www.google.com.ph today.

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Look for the Fine Print

Filed as News with 2 comments

Whether it’s tiny text in the newspaper or the voiceover guy on the radio, every “deal,” “discount,” and “giveaway” has fine print. Here are two that are irritating me today. read more

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How A Not Even Launched Gadget Site Can Clock 4.7M Pageviews

gdgt How A Not Even Launched Gadget Site Can Clock 4.7M Pageviews4.7 million pageviews. That’s what a not yet launched gadget site clocked in at while live blogging WWDC! Amazing, right? Actually, it is so amazing that both VentureBeat and TechCrunch writes about it.

So how did they do it? read more

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Facebook Lets Journos Get First Pick

The Facebook vanity URLs might not be coming until Saturday for most of us, but if your name is Michael Arrington and you’re running TechCrunch, you get dibs. That’s right, Facebook is giving prioritized journalists/bloggers first pick, so if you fancied facebook.com/mike/ as your new profile URL, you’re out of luck.

This isn’t outrageous, it’s just the way it is. Facebook wants to keep the people covering them happy, no more no less. Think what you will about that. Arrington decided to write about it (which probably pissed some Facebook PR rep off), and wraps it up in this brutal but honest way:

I feel sort of bad about posting this, since Facebook is actually doing us a favor. But I also think it’s kind of BS that Facebook is giving some people, employees included, first shot at the names. My guilt only extends so far, though. You suckers wait in line. I’m grabbing my name in advance.

We don’t have much choice, now do we?

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