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| Google Launches “Social Bar”, Competes With Facebook’s Link Bar Posted: 11 Feb 2009 02:01 PM PST Today Google annoucned the launch of their Friend Connect “Social Bar”. The tool enables users to comment on any page they visit on the web as long as it has the “Social Bar” enabled. Google describes the social bar as a “single strip that incorporates basic social features — sign in, site activity, a comment wall, and members — into streamlined, click-to-expand gadgets. It’s interesting to see Google rolling out more internally-developed widgets. Honestly, I think this is one area where Google currently has a leg up over Facebook Connect. While Facebook Connect is open for all developers, implementing the service can be a time consuming process, and as I noted today on AllFacebook, the service can even stop working on occasion. I’ve embedded a video of the service below so you can learn more.
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| Tsavo Reveals the Tip of the Iceberg in Semantic Search Posted: 11 Feb 2009 12:37 PM PST
During our conversation I realized that Facebook’s social graph data would be excellent for optimizing the people related search results. The problem right now is if you search for the name “Nick O’Neill”, you end up getting a ton of results, some of which are me and then results for other people with the same name. If I were to perform the search, the search engine should know that I only want photos of myself. So how does Facebook help solve this problem? On the surface it doesn’t but as I’ll explain in an upcoming article on AllFacebook, an identifying microformat which references a user’s Facebook identity would improve the search results by an order of magnitude (at a minimum). While Tsavo is only months into their quest to more effectively find the content we are looking for, this is clearly a step in the right direction. While the company doesn’t say that they are a “sematic search company”, my impression is that this is something the company is working toward. Yesterday Techcrunch classified the company as a “new media network”. I’m not so sure that’s how I’d describe them. Daymix.com clearly demonstrates the beginning of what’s trying to be accomplished. A sample widget from Tsavo has been embedded below to display what relevant results for the search “Facebook” returns. |
| Celebrate Lincoln’s Birthday at the Library or Online Posted: 11 Feb 2009 08:56 AM PST
The purpose of this exhibition is to offer additional insight into the 16th president, culminating several events that are taking place this year, from Lincoln’s 200th birthday to the observation of President’s Day, to Obama’s presidency, which Obama himself has used on several instances to honor his fellow citizen of Illinois. All of this comes in addition to the other technology-driven initiatives coming from the Library of Congress, which includes a partnership with photo-sharing site Flickr, among other things. The Library of Congress relies a great deal on the private sector, from a partnership with Microsoft for providing the technology behind the software running interactive on-site exhibits to the company that provides hosting for the Library’s data storage. What that translates into is far more accessibility on the Library’s part, as it becomes more and more able to turn to the web for marketing, support and media-sharing. This comes in the form of stand-alone applications as well as integrated media-sharing options, which is a dual-ended strategy that will hopefully pay off in the end. Especially as education becomes a priority for investment and development under President Obama’s new administration, having institutions such as the Library of Congress seek more integrated ways in which to reach out to children (of all ages) is a promising move for similar programs online. |
| Posted: 11 Feb 2009 08:25 AM PST
I haven’t witnessed it myself but the Web Distortion blog has grabbed a screen shot of the new option; at the bottom of the profile page the “Older” button has been replaced with “More.” Clicking on “more” will load new tweets on top of the old ones, without refreshing the entire page. The “more” button’s sporadic appearances lead us to believe that Twitter is still in the testing phases for a new AJAX feature, which would be quite helpful for a number of users that stick to the main website for the bulk of their Twitter activity. It would also be a rather big update for Twitter, which has remained a largely basic and unchanged service since its launch. It’s been the third party developers that often create valuable added features such as AJAX updates, but perhaps the infringing competition from Facebook is encouraging Twitter to push out more features on its own, especially if they’ll enhance the user experience directly on Twitter’s website. |
| Your Phone Can Read Your Instant Messages Outloud Posted: 11 Feb 2009 07:55 AM PST
What mStage does is combine regular mobile activity with voice, and the mobile web, enabling voice-based interaction in a two-way communication stream. That means that the phone will actually talk back to you, even if you’re on a call. Your phone can whisper a task or calendar reminder, or transcribe an IM you’ve received from a friend. It’s like having a personal assistant quietly interrupt your meeting to remind you of your next meeting. There are already a handful of services tied to mobile use that have voice-enabled interaction, though many of them require users to dial into a retrieval system, or log onto a website. Ditech Networks actually sees this as an obstacle to a high adoption rate, and hopes to gain support from consumers with a high level of integration for mobile use. That concept revolves around mStage apps becoming a part of the mobile conversation, in a very literal sense. As mStage won’t be released until later this year, it’s impossible for me to test out an mStage-powered application and tell you how well it works, to have my phone whisper reminders in my ear while I’m speaking to someone else. I imagine, based on the type of app integration and the frequency, such interruptions could be too much. But that’s not the only use-case scenario for mStage. There are a number of ways in which this voice-enabled interaction can provide a hands-free experience for mobile users while they’re not on the phone, increasing the usability and functionality of various mobile apps across the board. |
Early today I spoke with Mike Jones, CEO and Founder of 
The Library of Congress is doing a great deal to raise awareness for itself as an institution, and that includes an ongoing technology push that carries over into the online realm. The latest exhibition at the Library of Congress is called With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition, and it opens to the public on Feb. 12. 
In the past hour or so we’ve noticed an increase in the number of 
Voice-based interaction with the mobile web is a concept that makes sense in some ways, but may not seem practical just yet. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even bother using voice commands on my cell phone, even if it’s just to call a friend or a relative. Why? Because it rarely seems to work. And I sometimes feel kind of silly talking to my handheld. But Ditech Networks, a mobile voice solutions company, is hoping to change such attitudes with a new platform for mobile carriers, called mStage, which will be available later this year.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Social Times To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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