Its only the good old MS Paint

ChaCha Guide Search

Well, lets say you want to buy a computer to satisfy your ever increasing appetite for games, songs, videos and programmings. Simply put you want a powerful PC. You have two options either ask your nerd friend or do a web search, and now since you yourself know a lot about searching techniques you do a Google search and get one million results. Now you have two options either you go through all of them or go back to more reliable method, that is asking your friend. But, oh no this time your friend is stuck with some very serious work and do not want to be disturbed (obviously he is dating someone). You are nowhere, doomed.

And suddenly there's a thunder, all gets illuminated and ChaCha comes to rescue. ChaCha is a web search engine gives you the most optimized search which it brings out while chatting to you. You can in much the same way as talking to your friend, chat with ChaCha and quote your requirements. ChaCha will guide to the search result that is most suited to your need. Enter your search query and click search with guide. ChaCha will suggest you with sites while you chat and if you are not satisfied with the results you can tell you are not satisfied and want more specific results.

Here is an exerpt of a typical chat session:

Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: Lakhena L
Lakhena L: Welcome to ChaCha!
Lakhena L: HI
Lakhena L: How are you doing?
You: hi
You: i am fine
Lakhena L: How may I help you with computer today?
You: i am looking forward to buy a computer
Lakhena L: Ok,
Lakhena L: any specific type?
Lakhena L: Do you want to look for destop or laptop?
You: i want a powerful PC to play games, videos and running some common compilers
You: desktop
Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!
Looking for guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: SamanthaT
SamanthaT: Welcome to ChaCha!
SamanthaT: Hello, I will be happy to help you today with your search.
SamanthaT: Please be more specific as to what you're looking for on this topic.
SamanthaT: Hello?
SamanthaT: Hello?
You: i want a powerful pc that will run games like warcraft,nfs
SamanthaT: Sure one moment while I look.
SamanthaT: Thanks for being patient! Rest assured I'm finding the most relevant results for your search.
SamanthaT: Are these results sufficient?
You: yes thank you
SamanthaT: Is there anything else on this topic I can find for you today?
You: no thank you
SamanthaT: Thank you for using ChaCha, have a great day!
SamanthaT: Please RATE ME. Thanks for using ChaCha.

Yugma - Web Conferencing

Yugma launched a collaborative service that runs entirely inside your browser. You need not download any installer on your system to make use of this great tool. The good part is that it is offering all the basic features for free and works both of PC and Mac. Web browser with Java and thats all. Sign up is hassle free, on the fly. Once you have signed up and want to start a conference or join a conference, the java applet starts loading which takes a while. After that, you are ready to go, equipped with all the basic web-conferencing features such as showing desktop, annotation tools, changing presenters etc etc.

Google Apps for Your Domain

If you have registered a domain or planned to register this is probably is good news for you. Google is giving away its goodies like Gmail, Gtalk, Google Calendar etc to serve the multidimensional purpose of your domain. The good thing is that its fully customizable to give the apps a touch of your site. Besides you will also be able to put content on the site by leveriging the power of WYSIWYG editor.

If you have planned or just decided out of shear excitement of this news to register for a domain, again this is a great time. Google has partnered with GoDaddy and eNom to provide for registration services for $10 a year. The added flavor is that you get private domains which means your privacy will be preserved and your contact information will not be revealed. Other services charge 3-10$ extra to get you private domain.

Get started here ..... happy blogging!!

Cricket Networking

Cricket in India is a game with popularity matching nothing. Some call it religion. So, I guess this is the right time to start professing your religion. Sixer which was launched about two months ago and CrickeM which is just launched provide cricketer lovers a platform they always wanted. They wanted to network with like minded cricketesters, discuss with them the crucialities of a match, comment on batting style of Sachin , share and view their favourite clips of shots. And so thee get all you desired.

Google Launches Patent Search

A patent search feature has been integrated with Google's ever increasing range of services. The patent search at the time of writing seems to search US patents only as it pulls data from USPTO database. It covers all the 7 million (approx) patents issued by USPTO since 1790. The contribution of Google being conversion of all the image database of patents of USPTO into searchable format.

Search Queries--
» To search patents by patent number(lets patent no be 1247412) -- patent:1247412

» To search by inventor (ex. patents awarded to Edision) -- ininventor:edison

» To search by assignee ( ex. assigned by Fairchild) -- inassignee:fairchild

» By classification
US Classification -- uspclass:"99/385"
International Classification -- intlpclass:"A63B 6308"

You can use advanced search to search by filing date or issue date to narrow down your results.

The Stone Mover

Watch Wally Walington (WWW) building stonehenges.

Downloads of the day

Skype 3.0 : Get feature packed latest version of Skype. [Download]

Google Toolbar for Firefox.

Google Toolbar for IE7.

Yahoo Toolbar for IE7.

Making Money -- Pixelotto Style

There exists a million ways to churn money. But not all are smart enough to harness them and Pixelotto is definitely not one of them.

The formula:
1. Show advertisers the userbase/traffic
2. Show users the money ($ 1,000,000)
3. Provide an interface and act as middleman.

And the site owner walks away with $ 1,000,000. Doesn't matter if he do a charity for $ 1,00,000.

Pixelotto is selling up one million pixels for $2 each to the advertisers and side by side registering users to click on those ads. At the end there will a lucky draw to select the winner who will be suddenly $1,000,000 rich.

Gift from Flickr

Get ready to express all you wanted to express to your beloved ones or to the world for that matter. Flickr upgraded its storage limits both for free as well as Pro users. While the upload limit for free users have been increased 4 times to 100MB, the Pro users are relieved of any limits -- yes they can upload as much as they want. [via Flickr blog]

The Google Toolbar Story

So far...

» Google released toolbar for Internet Explorer 7 which resembled just like Yahoo Toolbar (get it here) which made a good fuss in the blogosphere.

» Google later on corrected the problem and released the more Google looking toolbar for IE7 (get it here)

» How can Google forget Firefox? And so it is here.

Google Toolbar 3 Beta lets you add bookmarks and access it from anywhere on the internet. You can add custom buttons to the toolbar and share webpages via Blogger, Gmail or SMS. All these features are with IE7 toolbar too.

A feature that is exclusively for Firefox users is that you can now view the documents you come across while on web right inside your browser window without downloading anything on your computer. [via Official Google Blog]

DareJunkies Goes Live

Shortly after the coverage DareJunkies went live and in total about 75 challenges across various categories were open at the time of writing. Some of them are quoted as under:

Poetry by numbers

Go to an open mic night. Be your most artsy, eclectic self and count it like you mean it… Begin simply counting 1 through 100. We’ve got a passion for numbers. We think counting to 100 is one of the most brilliant, meaningful ways to communicate human emotions. Feel free to start weeping from 65-70 and laughing uncontrollably through the 80’s!! Express yourself. If your audience is moved, maybe we will be.

Candle in the wind

Hold a candle vigil in your neighborhood. Invite all of your neighbors to join you, but do not tell them ahead of time what the vigil is for, just imply that its important to you that they attend. When your neighbors arrive, have a candle ready for each. When a good number of people have congregated, let them know the vigil is for your childhood dog who died 10 years ago. Tell them you hold the vigil annually. Or tell them its to celebrate the life of the spider you stepped on yesterday and killed. Perhaps pass out a program with a picture of Sadie, the family golden retriever, or of the smashed spider. Look confused when your neighbors shake their heads at you and head home.

Thomas Edison Rules!!!!!

Give us a little documentary on the best invention ever. What is it? Are you typing on it right now? The wheel is outdated so make it about something more modern. Do an expose on how this particular piece of technology has helped us and what you think the best invention has been over the last 50 years. Just don’t bore us…make it funny.

No means YES

Dress up in a wife beater or one of those t-shirts that states “Sex instructor: First Lesson Free”. You’ve always known you should give back to the community. Well, there is no better time than now. Set up a stand in a public place and give a lecture against sexual harassment complete with tips and defense strategies. When a cute girl or guy passes by staring in wonder, don’t hesitate to give her the old; “How you doin’?”

See your Page from Google's eyes

Heres the SEO tip of the day. If you want to see your page indexed top slot on the search engines, seeing how search engines or bots see your site is probably a good idea. This site provides the coveted service with a number of bots to choose from( googlebot, alexa, yahoo etc). All you have to enter the URL (include http://) and choose the bot.

Run Windows and Mac apps Side by Side

[Credit: Lifehacker]
LifeHacker published a post about running Windows apps side by side Mac apps on your Mac. This killer hack requires a virtualization product from parallels. Track the full story here.

Heres a screencast:

Calc 5 - Calculate, Draw 2D & 3D graphs

Calc5 provides interface to draw 2D and 3D graphs. It is coupled with some basic mathematical functions including derivatives. The interface is easy to use and possess only few simple functions which can be learned within seconds, just check out some samples in the right hand corner of the interface, or better still check out help section. You can obtain an approximate rough plot or a precise one.

Also see: Instant Web Calculator

Darejunkies : Do u dare to dare.

A new social network typo but with a difference is coming up. Darejunkies, a site that will award you for doing the craziest stuffs. The users can take part in contests by taking up the challenges posted on the site. Challenges such as wrapping yourself in peanut butter and go to a dog park, or get your grandma to tell you something embarrassing. Challenges are listed across categories such as embarrassment, dating etc. All you have to do is to shoot a video of yourself performing the act and upload it to their site, you can win a minimum of anything between 500-1000 USD. Users can also post challenges which will be reviewed before posting to chech its legality. At the moment of writing the site was showing "coming soon" status and accepting emails to let you know when the site goes live. [via Techcrunch]

Google launches Click to Call ads in India

Google adwords, a advertising portal for advertisers launched its new Click to Call(?) service in India. This service allows advertisers to connect directly to users/consumers. It works as follows:

» Advertisers registar at Google Adwords for the Click to Call service.
» Users see a small phone icons next to Google ads.
» Users click on the icon, and it expands and prompts you to enter your phone number.
» Users phone almost immediately rings and they are connected to advertiser free of charge.

Google ensures that your phone numbers are not leaked to the consumers. Google is also trying to ensure that you do not become to prey of pranks when someone enters your phone number.

This service is already launched in US, and you can use it in conjunction with Google Maps, just click the Find businesses tab while searching (via Official Google Blog).

Wikia launching OpenServing

Going by the philosophy of open source Wikia unveiled OpenServing, which will enable users to create their own collaborative sites. It will have the following features:

» The contents of the site could be created or edited on any topic by you as well as by your users/viewers.

» Users can vote the articles, much like Digg.

» You can comment articles, also vote on comments written by others.

» Articles with most votes will make it to the frontpage.

» Add or edit additional feeds (drag-drop) related to topic.

» Most important-- You get 100% of the revenue that the site generate with ads.

Maps Mania

Google by virtue of its two killer apps Maps & Earth brought the revolution and reduced the world to fit into your monitor ( see Google Earthopedia) and it has got a lot of takers worldwide. They take Google earth, leverage their APIs and come up with their own apps. Here is a brief compilation of user created Google Maps apps:

» Webcams of the World : A collection of webcams geographically laid out.

» 7 Wonders : Seven wonders of the world classified by ancient, medieval, modern and nature.

» Ascii Art : Google maps made with ascii characters. Creative one.

» BBC news : See the news as it happens at places in Britain.

» Cheap Hotels : Affordable hotels worldwide.

» Travel n Blog : See what people are writing about places they visit. Good guide.

» Classifieds : Classified ads laid out geographically.

» Photos & Videos : Google maps + Flickr + Youtube. Lets you see pics n vids shared by others.

» Frappr : Social map. Add maps, add yourself to others maps, track your site traffice & more.

» Link with Friends : Add buddies. Good for blogs, groups, forums.

» BuddyPing : Google maps+Flickr+Del.icio.us . Shoot & Share pics geographically.

» Life History of George Bush : Bush biography geographically.

Theres a lots more useful maps spread all over the cyber space. Do a Google for them using relevant keywords like hospital maps , hotels google map etc.


See Also : Maps & Maps,
Virtual World.

Pimping Photos

In my budding days I had an immense passion to alter or pimp any human face I found on my textbooks, or some old cherished family photographs. As soon as I spot a face, a pen suddenly appears in my hand and the innocent picture is turned into a monstrous one. Today I got another chance to recall that passion. But this time it was in the form of a web-service, with my mouse as the tool. Pikipimp allows you to pimp the pictures you upload. You can choose from a range of beards, moustaches, eyes, glasses, hair styles,hats, music, tongue, teeth and lots more with each item customizable in several aspects such as size,color,transparency etc.[via Techcrunch]

See also:

» Draw Professional Criminal Sketches

» Passion = Drawing

Sites that link here

Technorati lists the sites that link to your blog or site. Just do a search for your site at technorati (if you registered) and it will give you a link to the link containing list of sites that link to you. But thats not really I wanted to say here.

I want to share this:

In order to find some really good blogs I Googled "sites that link here". This way it will show up the most relevant site with most links and traffic. And oh yes I got a good blog. I got first result from technorati and here it is -- The Gurgling Cod.

And heres a serendipity: Ctrl+5 is same as Ctrl+a , that is "select all"

Large File Sharing Services

Sharing large files have become a need in recent years. Some do it for really useful purposes such as music,movies,games, xxx and others do it for boring tasks such as projects, books etc. I thought its worthless to reproduce the whole list here which has already been prepared and put on net by some great guys. So, I just provide the links ok.

Classic list (2005) : This is a link which has been linked by most of the sites. Though slightly old, but old is gold.

Hyperguru: Good one. Gives a good list of browser based sharing services and that in Russian and German too besides English.

Wikipedia : Comparision of file sharing applications.

Wikipedia : Comparision of BitTorrent Software.

Slyck: The best one. Lates news and views about file sharing innovations.

Wordie -- Like Flickr but Without the Photos

Like Flickr, but without the photos. Yes, thats the tag-line of Wordie. It lets you maintain a list of words ( good-bad-anything). The words have links listed alongside for ready reference (NinjaWords, TheFreeDictionary, EtymOnline, Dictionary, M-W, UrbanDictionary, Wikipedia and Google). The service is addictive and one can spend hours adding words, going through words submitted by others and adding comments.

Download of the Day

Try the 2007 Microsoft Office System with all its features loaded. The trial period is 60 days. It is poised for release in Jan 2007. See the estimated price of products here.

The trial links for individual office products are:

Microsoft® Office Professional 2007
Microsoft® Office Small Business 2007
Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007
Microsoft® Office Accounting Professional
Microsoft® Office Groove 2007
Microsoft® Office OneNote 2007
Microsoft® Office Publisher 2007
Microsoft® Office Project Standard 2007
Microsoft® Office Visio Professional 2007
Microsoft® Office Visio Standard 2007
Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007
Microsoft® Office Standard 2007

You can save the documents created with Office 2007 in pdf format by installing an Add in "MIcrosoft Save As PDF". Get it here.

You can also open,create, edit and save Office 2007 documents in earlier version of Office. All you need is to download Compatibility pack [here].

Google Earthopedia

A so called Geographic Web Layer has been added to Google Earth by integrating Wikipedia, Panoramio and Google Earth Community to itself making it a good storehouse of geographical information. This means that you gotta see a layer consisting of icons from the above services and when you click on them you will get information put up on those services about that landmark. This integration really opens up a completely different Earth where you can fly to places while learning secrets about them, besides you will be able to see a good number interesting places or sights bookmarked by other peoples.

[via Official Google Blog]

Yahoo Search vs Google Search

Langreiter lets you compare Google vs Yahoo searches side by side with a slick graphical report. The search results of the two sites are connected by lines to show their relative position of appearance. The dots are clickable in order to get to the results.

Test Drive:

Get Mails from other Accounts into Gmail

Very recently a new feature called Mail Fetcher has been added to Gmail. Now you can have emails from your different accounts bundled into single platform Gmail. Gmail allows you to add upto 5 accounts from which you want to fetch mails into your Gmail account, thus enabling a centralized administration over all your mails. You can also create a customized From: address which lets you send mails from Gmail but appear as if send from your other mail account that you have configured. All you have to do is to go to your settings section on the top right corner of your Gmail interface, click account tab and click "Add another email address". Heres a step by step guide. Be informed though that it can be confiugred for only those webmails which enable access to there POP servers. So, at this point of time its not possible to add free Yahoo or Hotmail accounts to your Gmail.

» One last note, this feature is already there in Yahoo Mail, Go to Options->Mail->Mail Addresses. Yahoo also allows you create an extra mail account.

» In case you want disposable email addresses see "Fighting Spam with Disposable Mails".

» In case you want to do some comparative analysis of Email providers see -- Webmail Comparisions, Email client comparisions.