Transcript

Thursday July 31, 2008

Microsoft Releases New Live Search Home Page

Microsoft has released a new Live Search homepage that includes a scenic background image with clickable hotspots leading to further information provided by features of the search engine. The Live Search homepage is meant to provide a great place to start a search, but to also intrigue and inform, according to Microsoft. Microsoft chose to implement the idea after testers of the new hope page were receptive.

http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2008/07/30/new-home-page-aims-to-help-you-explore-more-on-the-web.aspx
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/31/Microsoft_redesigns_Livecom_1.html
http://mashable.com/2008/07/30/live-search-homepage/
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsofts_Live_Search_homepage_adds_background_image_with_clickable_spots/1217448121
http://www.webmasterworld.com/msn_microsoft_search/3711621.htm

Google Street View Gets The Go Ahead In UK

Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office has given Google the go ahead to continue taking pictures of streets for its street view mapping service that will provide 360 degree panoramic ground level street images of the UK. Google has continually come under fire for its service by privacy campaigners and the public, especially as it tries to expand the service beyond the United States and some European countries. The ICO said the safeguards Google is putting in place, such as face and registration plate blurring technologies, are sufficient to dispel concerns about privacy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7534755.stm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/31/ico_streetview_pgoogle_privacy_international/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/31/google.civilliberties

Socialmedian Unveils Social News Site

Socialmedian, a social news aggregator website that takes into account a persons networks to target important news, is launching its service in public beta starting today. Socialmedian lets users pull stories from relevant sources around the web, submit articles to one of 1000 existing networks or create a personalized network, as well as recommend articles. Socialmedian will compete with other news-centered sites including Google News, Techmeme and Digg, amongst others and hopes to set itself apart by implementing the suggestions contributed by users during its four month private, invite only alpha testing phase. Such suggestions have led to features including the ability to follow other users and their activities on the site, the ability to share socialmedian articles on Twitter and the ability to choose the volume of articles delivered to a personal news feed from any network. Coming soon, Socialmedian plans to integrate FriendFeed with its service, introduce invite-only news networks and has plans to launch a Socialmedian iPhone application.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/31/socialmedian-unveils-improved-social-news-site/

[edited by: Vanessa_Zamora at 9:59 pm (utc) on July 31, 2008]