SquirrelNet

Wikipedia gains credibility

Following up on prior posts about the Wikipedia (see Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia and FactBug.org searches the Wikipedia), I'd like to pass along a quick comment from Pete Blackshaw who runs of the most credible blog analysis sites on the web.  In an article called Wikipedia and CGM (Consumer-Generated Media) Pete says:

Wikipedia is emerging as a source of immediate and thorough background - more reliable and timely than other encyclopedias or knowledge databases.

This comment is quite interesting because it shows that a user-supported group can produce works of high-quality.  Years ago people would be more skeptical.  Wikipedia and other successful sites where users generate the content now have their own label -- Web2.0.

"A Diamond is Forever" Mini-Movie

Just saw a cute commercial tonight that was one of those mini- episodes that invite you to see the rest of the story online.  This one is called A Diamond Is Forever: What Would You Do For Love?  If you visit the link, you can see the rest of the story, brought to you in 15 mini episodes which follow our hero as he decides to travel from Minneapolis to Chicago first by foot, then by...  Well, I don't want to spoil the story for you.

The adiamondisforver.com website is sponsored by the Diamond Trading Company, a world leader in diamond sales and marketing.

Happy Thanksgiving from Google

Happy Thanksgiving from Google!

Google's "Local Froogle" helps locate holiday shopping items near your house

Google has unveiled a new feature that tells you where you can find holiday shopping items on a Google Map.  In doing so, Google is combining elements of their Froogle shopping comparison engine with their Local Google mapping services.

The diagram above shows places near downtown Orlando that sell the Apple iPods (click to enlarge).  To see this in action, visit this link:  iPods near downtown Orlando via Google's Froogle.  In visiting the link, you'll note that you can also find a list of prices on the left side of the screen.

Want to do this yourself?  Just visit Froogle, type in a search, click on the link on the green bar at the top that says Local Shopping, and enter your location.  If you checked "remember this location", you will only have to enter your location once.

This is truly a very handy feature.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, a turkey-flavored soda

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, anyone for turkey, salmon, or broccoli-flavored soda?  If so, the folks at Jones Soda want you!

Search for professional grade photos on Whoophy.com, a photography search engine

Woophy.com is a photography search engine that shows professional grade photos through an interface that is a map of the world.  In fact , WHOOPHY stands for WOrld Of PHotographY. 

Pictures on Woophy are related to where you see them on the map.  For example, if you click on an icon in the Yosemite area of California, you'll see some cool pictures of the Death Valley area, such as the one below (click to enlarge).

I find the majority of pictures on Woophy to be completely breathtaking.  It's rare to find a site that leads you to beautiful photos over and over again.  In my mind, Woophy allows you to find "nicer" photos than Yahoo's Flickr.  And with more than 25,000 photos from all around the world in its repository, Whoophy gives us all a reason to come back and visit from time to time.

What makes Whoophy work is a dedicated community of more than 2700 photo enthusiasts from all around the world.  This community has the say in terms of what photos show up.  The Woophy website is run by a team from The Netherlands.

Usage tips:  You can use the icons in the bottom left to zoom in/out and move the map around, similar to how Google Maps works. 

(A special thank you goes out to ResearchBuzz for finding this very cool site!)

 

Cool visualization of Google searches (time-lapsed)

Here's a cool visualization of Google searches done around the world in time-lapse fashion.  For more info, see Time-lapse visualization of Google searches around the world.

FactBug.org searches the Wikipedia

I previously wrote about Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.  It's a nice user-edited online encyclopedia with millions of topics, but the Wikipedia's site search does not offer a great user experience.  A website called FactBug.org offers an alternate means of searching the Wikipedia.  The main advantage is that FactBug will present you with more search results in a more readable fashion.

On the other hand, if you know exactly what you are looking for, Wikipedia does offer the option to "Go" directly to the topic you are interested in.  For example, if I want to learn about Florida, I just type in "Florida" and hit "Go".

Of course, while FactBug simply lists out all Wikipedia links that meet your query criteria and Wikipedia is good at some things and not so good at others, you can always use Google to search the Wikipedia.  After your query phrase, just type in site:wikipedia.org.  For example, here's what I would type into Google if I want to search for Florida results:

florida site:wikipedia.org

The advantage of Google is that they will likely show you the results that are most relevant.

Panaromic view atop Mt. Everest

To start the week off with a geographical and topical inspiration, here's a 360-degree view from the top of Mt. Everest.  To get the 360-degree effect, you'll need to scroll right.  Here are some interesting facts about Mt. Everest. 

And, for Disney fans, Walt Disney World's "Disney's Animal Kingdom" theme park will be getting an Everest-themed roller coaster in 2006 called Expedition Everest.

Google releases "Personalized Search"

Google has moved their Google Personalized Search out of beta.  In a nutshell, this means they can now personalize search results anyone who signs up for the service.  It's free of course.  I've seen it in action as they've listed out 3-5 personalized results for me to checkout.  For more info and to sign up for it, you can visit the link I provided above.

Hat tip:  SearchDay