Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on March 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

Barnes & Noble recently launched a new how-to site that they’re calling Quamut. Their tag line is “the go to how to” and it’s all about providing users with simple instructions on how to do different things in a variety of topics.  Topics that they cover include house and home, hobbies and leisure, money and business, computers and technology, and mind and body. What’s different about Quamut in comparison to other “how-to” sites is that every bit of information is written by an expert and then reviewed by a fact-checker. It’s produced and then published by the editorial team at Barnes & Noble headquarters so that you have some reassurance that the information is correct.

Each “how-to” article is called a Quamut and they are consistently adding new ones. To make money, topics are formatted into a printable chart which users can purchase and then print for easy access. Charts vary in length, but it appears that they all cost $2.95. If someone is looking to just read the information online, they can do that too without needing to purchase the chart because all information is also formatted in HTML and available on the site. Selling Quamut’s isn’t their only method to make money, they also use Google AdSense and provide links to Barnes & Noble where users can purchase different books relating to the topic they were looking at.

One perk to the service is that each day they offer a free Quamut for users to download.  Today’s free Quamut is Gardening Basics which will tell you anything you ever wanted to know about gardening in six pages. You can also just view the online version for Gardening Basics here. Another nice feature is that they have a community Wiki where users can share their knowledge with others on various topics.

Overall the site looks very promising. I like the route they’re taking to monetize the site by offering all of the content for free, viewable only online, or making it available for purchase in which case the user can print and view it offline. As Mashable points out, it looks as though finally we may be headed in the right direction as far as online publishing goes.

Go ahead and check it out, and then let us know what you think!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on April 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

I have been using Google’s Froogle shopping service for several years, and now they have finally decided to switch the name to Google Product Search. I actually liked the name Froogle quite a bit because it was easy to remember and short to type. Now the official site can be found at http://google.com/products which will take a lot more for me to remember. For right now they make Froogle.com redirect to the new address, and hopefully they keep it that way.

Here is what Google’s Marissa Mayer had to say about the change:

You may be familiar with our product Froogle (a pun on “frugal”). Froogle offers a lot of great functionality and has helped many users find things to buy over the years, but the name caused confusion for some because it doesn’t clearly describe what the product does.

So we’re renaming Froogle as Google Product Search. We’re taking the opportunity to refocus the user experience on providing the most comprehensive, relevant results in a clean, simple, easy-to-use UI. We’re also excited about how Google Checkout can help searchers have a fast and secure purchase experience, so the new interface makes it easier to buy with Checkout.

I can see how there is some confusion about what Froogle’s purpose was, but do all names clearly describe the associated services? I believe it isn’t always about having the instant name recognition because it is also important to have something that is catchy. “Froogle” was just that…it stuck in my head and was something I wouldn’t forget. Whenever I think about searching for a product or price comparisons Froogle is one of the first things that comes to mind.

One thing that has been pushing me away from using Froogle (now Google Product Search) is the increasing amount of junk listings being served with the search results. They need a better method of refining, and one that I think they should offer is the ability to only show stores with a minimum number of ratings. Not only does that help cut back on spam, but it will also help you choose a more reputable store. They do, however, let you show sellers with a minimum rating (0 to 5 stars) but a store where only one person has rated it could achieve a perfect 5, and therefore skew the accuracy of the results.

Visit the Google Product Seach Homepage

Thanks for the tip Cory!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on December 27, 2007 by CyberNet.

Computers have always prospered because of people who sought after ways to fulfill the needs of users. When I look back at where applications and services were just a few years ago I have a hard time believing how far we’ve actually come.

We decided to create two different awards, one for the Most Innovative Services and another for the Most Innovative Products. This article covers the services, and tomorrow we’ll be taking a look at the products.

The 2007 CyberNet Award for Most Innovative Service goes to…

–3rd Place: Netvibes–

Netvibes continues to impress me with all of the work that they are doing, and what’s to come. It’s essentially the ultimate homepage because it has widgets to do just about anything. You can check your mail, write notes, manage a to-do list, chat with friends, search the web, and much much more.

What’s even better is the number of service-specific widgets they have available. They’ve created widgets for Alexa, Del.icio.us, Digg, eBay, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, and more. When you put all of this together you get a homepage that is unlike any other.

–2nd Place: Yahoo! Mail–

The new Yahoo! Mail definitely deserves a place on the list this year. They’ve introduced several features that are yet to be seen in other email services, such as a tabbed interface, integrated RSS reader, and “unlimited” storage space.

To add even more power to Yahoo! Mail the developers decided to integrate calendar and messaging capabilities right into the service. It would be even more amazing if Yahoo! would offer forwarding and POP/IMAP access for free.

–1st Place: Opera Link–

Opera has earned 1st place in this category for their newly launched Opera Link service. At first glance it may appear to be just a bookmark synchronization service, but it is so much more.

Once you setup Opera Link it will begin synchronizing your bookmarks, in addition to some other optional information. From there you will be able to access your bookmarks from any Opera desktop browser, and even from Opera Mini on your mobile device. Having all of the bookmarks from your desktop computer available on your mobile device is priceless, and can save incredible amounts of time.

If that’s not enough Opera Link also allows remote bookmark management through the link.opera.com website. This will work in any browser on any computer that has an Internet connection, thereby ensuring that you’re always connected to your favorite sites.

In the future I would expect that Opera will roll out Opera Link integration for their Opera Mobile and Opera Wii browsers, which will take the service to an entirely new level.

–And Your Winners–

Now it is time for you to chime in! Let us know in the comments who earned your “Most Innovative Service” award.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on April 24, 2007 by CyberNet.

No one can argue about Twitter’s recent explosion in popularity that started around March. However, you’ll find plenty of people arguing over whether or not it will last.  Many are saying that this is just a fad, that’ll be over as quick as it started, others are saying this is just the beginning.

I tend to think that this is just a fad, and its days are numbered, and one of the biggest reasons for that is Facebook’s recent changes to their “status” feature. Facebook has had the status feature for about a year now where users update what they’re doing Twitter style. I.E.: Ashley is writing an article. But, viewing the updates from your friends wasn’t nearly as convenient or accessible as Twitter.

Their recent improvements make it a lot more Twitterish because now they’ve added a page so that you can view all of your friends’ updates. It aggregates all of the updates into one page, and shows their picture, the update, and how long ago the status was changed.  Just click on “Friends,” then “Status Updates” and you’ll be updated with what all of your friends are up to.  The example below shows what this looks like (names blurred).

What makes it even more like Twitter is that they’ve taken advantage of RSS and text messaging.  Now you can subscribe to your friends’ updates via RSS or you can get updates via SMS.  You can even update your own status right from your phone by sending SMS to Facebook.

Facebook has been on a steady uphill climb which got steeper in April.  With millions of people already updating their status on Facebook, I don’t know how much longer Twitter will be able to climb the charts with their service.

Some of you are probably thinking about all of the cool add-ons available for Twitter that are missing from Facebook, however, Facebook has been pretty friendly with the developers, giving them access to the API and promoting development. It’ll only be a matter of time before the developers get to work and hammer out similar applications.

Things aren’t lookin’ so good for the little guys lately.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 19, 2006 by CyberNet.

The former ipodmybaby.com has been bullied(?) by Apple into changing their name to ipopmybaby.com. Apple lawyers have forced the former ipodmybaby online baby clothing store to change names– presumably to protect their name. This store specializes in iPod attire for babies. Click-wheel one-pieces in white, blue, pink, or black are selling for around $15.95 each.

Apple has been aggressively, and rightfully protecting their name preventing companies such as ipopmybaby.com from capitalizing from it. One such example is the former iPodlounge.com was forced to change to ilounge.com.

In all honesty, I don’t know how many people would actually dress their child in an iPod one-piece. You’d have to be a die hard iPod/Apple fan to even consider it. I thoroughly enjoy my iPod but wouldn’t ever consider dressing my child like one! With that said, there are more of these die hard fans out there than I thought apparently they are selling thousands of these click-wheel baby one-pieces!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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