Jul 29

This Just In: Best Buy Copyrights Prices!

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on November 13, 2006 by CyberNet.

Black Friday Bet you didn’t know it was possible to copyright prices but apparently Best Buy must have some smart people working for them. Maybe they haven’t done it officially but they are claiming that they have. A few days back BlackFriday.info posted a text-based list (Google Cache of the page) of the sale items that Best Buy will have for their “Day after Thanksgiving” sale. No big deal, right? There are all kinds of sites that have done this but it looks like Best Buy decided to target them. This is what BlackFriday.info has to say about the message they received:

BestBuy has threatened to file a take down notice with our ISP under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) due to our posting of the BestBuy Black Friday ad. While we believe that sale prices are facts and not copyrightable, we do not want to risk having this website shut down due to a DMCA take down notice. Because of this, we have removed the BestBuy Black Friday ad from the website as requested.

Best Buy is using the DMCA as their force behind making them take down the price list, which is essentially saying that the site is partaking in copyright infringement? I found that to be extremely amusing because there are many other sites with similar lists, such as BFads.net. Actually, BFads.net even has a full ad scan up in PDF format! Just in case the ad scan gets taken down I have gone ahead and uploaded it to MediaFire.

I think Best Buy should have just left things alone because what’s the worst that could happen by having your ad available to millions of people a few weeks early? Wouldn’t that just create more excitement and demand for the items they are going to offer?

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Jul 26

Google Transferring Over Feedburner Accounts

Posted in: Google, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 15, 2008 by CyberNet.

google feedburner.pngGoogle has finally begun migrating RSS feeds that are being hosted on Feedburner over to Google’s own servers. It’s been over a year since Google acquired Feedburner, and since then the service’s 1.92 million feeds have generally been untouched. Why now? Google has begun rolling out Adsense for feeds after closing the doors on Feedburner’s CPM-based advertising solution. Before you can place ads in your feeds, however, you’ll need to migrate them over to Google’s servers.

How do you do that? Google has posted instructions, and surprisingly the migration is manually done by the Adsense team:

To migrate all of your feeds, and your account from feeds.feedburner.com to Google, please contact us at adsense-support-aff@google.com and provide the following information:

  • Your FeedBurner account username
  • The Google Account email address you use to sign in to AdSense

We did this yesterday at 3:39PM, and as of 6:44AM our account was transitioned over. The only problem we had was that our feed subscribers dropped by over 2,500, but the Adsense team promptly responded to my inquiry about that:

Your subscriber numbers should come back within 24 hours. It has to do with timing of the various pollers versus the time we did the migration. As all traffic migrates over, your traffic numbers should be reported correctly.

No traffic was lost, it is just that a portion of yesterday is tracked on the old system.

Other than that everything was pretty smooth. Since we do use Feedburner MyBrand I went and changed the CNAME entry in my DNS record to:

feeds CNAME ghs.google.com.

Google didn’t say that I had to do it, but I thought I would just to be on the safe side.

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Jul 24

Facebook App Scrabulous Replaced with Wordscraper

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

Facebook | Wordscraper.pngBack in May we wrote about a website called Scrabulous where you could go to play the classic game of Scrabble. We mentioend at the time that there was also a version of it available on Facebook as a Facebook App, but we weren’t sure how long they were going to be around. The reason we said that was because Hasbro and Mattel had asked Facebook to remove it. The makers of Scrabble would have been smart to just acquire Scrabulous, but they didn’t. Instead they decided to take the time to build their own version which was recently released on Facebook.

Shortly after Hasbro and Mattel launched their own Facebook app, the Scrabulous app went unavailable to those in the United States and Canada this past week. Lots of their users were upset until Scrabulous came back under a new name with a new look and new rules. The game is being called Wordscraper and rumor has it that they changed the name of the game and the rules to help avoid brand confusion, something Hasbro and Mattel could go after them for.

I decided to install the new Wordscaper app on Facebook which consists of two games, Wordscaper Blitz (a fast paced word building competition in real-time) and Wordscaper regular which they describe as “a fantastic tool to build and play your own word game within seconds. Simply click on new game, build board/rules, and start playing. You can save your creations for future use, or share them with friends. Games are turn based and awesome fun.”

Some Scrabulous fans have already expressed some disappointment in the new Wordscraper offering saying it’s just not the same, which it isn’t. The good thing though, is because users can create their own boards, they do have the option of making one that resembles Scrabble. At this point there are several thousand Wordscraper users which is far behind the half million users Scrabulous had.

To those going through Scrabulous withdrawals, remember that you do not need Facebook to play it, you just need to visit www.scrabulous.com where the game is still available to play.

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Jul 22

Helpful Tip: Monitor Sites for Changes with RSS Feeds

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on November 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Back in March we introduced you to a service called Feedity which creates a feed for sites without syndication. As I had mentioned at the time, there’s nothing more frustrating than coming across a site that I’d like to keep tabs on that doesn’t have any syndication available. This is why Feedity and other services similar to it like Drapper are so helpful. In the comments of that article, Karveira pointed out a few additional services that they knew of with one of them being Page2RSS.com. Today I thought we’d take a look at this service to see what it offers.

We’ll start with the basics first- what is Page2RSS? It’s simply a service that will help you monitor web sites for changes that do not publish a feed.  It can check any web page for an update, and does this every 2-4 hours. If a change has been made, you’ll get updates in your RSS aggregator. To use the service, you can either enter the URL of the website you’re wanting to monitor on the Page2RSS site and click “to RSS,” or you can install the Page2RSS toolbar which will be helpful if you end up using this service frequently.

page2rss

One of the downsides is that you can’t specify which part of a site you’d like monitored for changes. On some sites a date is displayed which is automatically updated daily.  If the date was the only thing that changed, you’d still get the update in your RSS feed which would defeat the purpose. Using this service for a site that you want to monitor which isn’t updated often (given that they don’t update the date each day) would prove to be the most useful so that you wouldn’t have to constantly check back. Another way that this would come in handy is if you’re waiting for a new program to come out. Just create a feed for the program’s website, and once it launched, you’d know via RSS.

Overall I’d say for everyday purposes, Page2RSS isn’t recommended. But, if you have a site or two that you’d like to monitor for changes – Page2RSS is just what you’re looking for.

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Jul 22

Map Your Ride with MapMyRide.com

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on July 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

I don’t know about where you live, but where I live the weather has been nearly perfect. Sunny, low 80 degree temps., and a nice breeze, just-right for spending a day outside. If you spend your days like this outside riding your bike, MapMyRide.com is definitely a site that you’ll want to check-out.

MapMyRide.com is a Google Maps Mash-up which is easy to use, and easy to read. A great route can make a big difference, and this site will help you create your own route. You can also view routes that people have already created, and view pictures of them. It’s a social site of sorts, and there are lots of tools to help you along the way.

Mapmyride

One of those helpful tools is a Workout Calculator. Want to know how many calories you burned along your ride? After you’ve created a route or you select a route, you’ll enter in information like gender, age, height, and weight, and it will give you an average pace, an average speed, and the calories that you burned during the route. You can also create a training log (free membership required) where you’re able to keep track of your ride statistics.

If you’re really into cycling, another feature you’ll like is their Cycling Events section.  Anybody is able to ad an event for free, and then people can search for cycling events and races in their area. If there’s an event for the area that you search for, you’ll get a description of it, registration info, who is organizing the event, and contact information.

Maybe biking isn’t for you? You can plan and search for more than just a cycling route. Options include a dog walk, hiking, horse riding, kayaking, canoeing, and others. Along with distance information, they also include elevation information so that you know what kind of ride you’re in for!

Visit MapMyRide.com

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Jul 20

Facebook Connect Launches, Already Plans for Mobile

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on July 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

We are now starting to get more information about Facebook Connect which shows Facebook’s ability to be innovative and grow. Facebook Connect allows other sites to integrate Facebook’s identity system into their site to simplify things. Several sites have already partnered with Facebook and one of them is Digg. Kevin Rose explained on the Digg Blog that with this new feature, anyone who has a Facebook account will be able to “seamlessly become a Digg user and start sharing and Digging stuff right away.”

At this point there are 24 different partners who have teamed up for the launch of this. Aside from Digg, other partners include CBS, CNET, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Vimeo, Flock, Hulu, Plaxo, Loopt, Kongregate, and more.

facebook connect.png

Facebook put together a press release which outlines some of the benefits of using Facebook Connect:

  • Trusted Authentication – easily authenticate into partner sites using their Facebook account
  • Real Identity – leverage their real identity across the Web in a trusted environment
  • Friend Linking – take their friends with them wherever they go, enabling trusted social context anywhere on the Web
  • Dynamic Privacy – assurance that the same privacy settings users have set up on Facebook will follow them wherever they decide to login throughout the Web
  • Social Distribution – share actions on partner sites with friends back on Facebook

We decided to see what people were saying about Facebook Connect on the web and we found Om Malik over at GigaOM talking about how Facebook Connect is a winner. He says, “If Facebook can work with its partners to build interesting use-case scenarios that go beyond simple sign-on, it is quite feasible that Facebook can out-execute Google, MySpace and everyone else with its ID ambitions.”

The Facebook crew even thought to address mobile needs with Facebook Connect coming to the iPhone this fall. Now think about how useful that could be now that people can download all of these Apps that require signing-up for an account. This could really make things consistent and less complicated if iPhone App developers choose to integrate it.

When we stop back to think just for a minute, Facebook is growing and expanding pretty rapidly. Are they the next Google?

Thanks for the tip Natmaster

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Jul 20

New Version of Live Maps Released – Includes Firefox Support for 3D Mapping

Posted in: Apple, maps, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

The Windows Live Maps/Virtual Earth team has spent some serious time over the last few weeks implementing new features and changes. One of their latest changes is the addition of Birds Eye Coverage around the world using their Virtual Earth service. 

Yesterday they released a new version of Live Maps, and they say among the changes are bug fixes and performance improvements. Besides those changes, there’s a pretty big list of new features which they’ve posted on their blog. Below are some of the changes you’ll probably enjoy most:

  • Firefox Support for 3D mapping – If you’re using version 1.5 or later, you’ll now be able to use this feature. They’ve also added 16 new cities that will have 3D support available. Along with this change, cache performance and memory management has been improved.
  • Subscribe to collections via RSS – This new RSS feature will make it easy to keep track of changes to collections. For example, “if someone sends you a link to a collection of their favorite Italian restaurants in your city, you may want to subscribe to the collections’ feed to be kept up to date as the author adds more and more restaurants.”
  • Reviews and Ratings – This is definitely not a new concept here, but it’s nice that they implemented it.  You can read and write reviews of businesses, and rate them.
    Ratings
  • Area Calculations and Drawing Enhancements – Using drawing tools, you can draw a shape on the map (perhaps for your neighborhood, community, etc.), and then Live Maps will find the area of the shape that you drew.
    Drawing

Keep in mind that using the Virtual Earth 3D Mapping requires a quick installation and setup. It only takes a minute, and you only have to do it once.

They also say that V5 of Virtual Earth Map Control will be released soon and they’ll be introducing new features with that as well. Kudos to the Windows Live/Virtual Earth team for all of their hard work and great improvements.

 

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Jul 20

Vizu Makes You Money With Polls

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on December 15, 2006 by CyberNet.

Vizu iTunes Poll Before I started using our own polling software on the site I checked out Vizu, because they had a nice interface for embedding polls on any site. They just didn’t let me customize it as much as I would have liked though, so I opted for hosting my own polling system. That way it was easy for me to make up my own polls and I could truly customize the appearance.

Lately, on at least 4 of the blogs that I visit there have been polls that are embedded in the site to make the author money. This is done by Vizu Answers and is actually a very smart way for website publishers to earn a little extra money. I’m not quite sure how much money can be made by using this but right now, on all four sites, they are displaying the same “Do you use iTunes?” poll. There needs to be a variety of polls available so that people don’t see the same one on every site because once you vote, no matter which site you’re on, it will show up that you have already voted on all the rest of the sites.

The Vizu Answers isn’t something that I’m going to do here because I want to have my own fun with the polls, but don’t be surprised if you start seeing this kind of advertising popup all over the place. So far the current poll that I have posted has more than 450 votes which is really awesome. I’ll continue to switch out the poll once or twice a week after it looks like the voting has died down a little so if you have anything you would like asked just post it in the comments below!

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Jul 19

Feed the Hungry, Improve Your Vocab

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

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

If you’ve said you wanted to give back and help those in need but you’ve never actually done anything about it, here’s your chance.  A site called “Free Rice” has turned helping the hungry into a “game” that tests your vocabulary.  When you go to the site, a word will be displayed and you’ll be give four different choices of what the word means.  For each word you get right, they’ll donate 10 grains of rice to a hungry person through an international aid agency. Nice, huh?

Aside from Free Rice’s goal of helping to end world hunger by providing free rice to those in need, they also have a goal of helping people learn new vocabulary. They’ve got a database filled with thousands of different words that vary in difficulty. Once you start, it will determine a “starting” level based upon how you answered and whether you got it right or not.  Should you get a word wrong, it will drop your level down to something easier. If you get three words right in a row though, you’ll go to a harder level. They say that their system helps to keep you at the “outer fringe of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.”

free rice

You’ll notice at the bottom of the site that they display three different sponsors at a time.  These are all of the different companies that are supporting the program and paying for the rice. The rice is then distributed by the United Nations World Food Program which words to end hunger around the globe. It’s definitely a great project, and a great way to get people involved.

Let me warn you before you start that some of the words are pretty difficult! Any guesses (without going to a dictionary) at what Calumny means? Does it mean verge, tattletale, fit of frustration, or slander? This is the word I just got stuck on, but as of now I’ve donated 60 grains of rice.

Visit Free Rice

Source: Thanks for the tip rogoisu! [via Digg]

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Jul 17

TinEye: An Amazing Image Search Engine

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on May 23, 2008 by CyberNet.

There are all kinds of search engines out there that specialize in one specific area. Some of them are useful while others simply aren’t. One of those specialized search engines to add to the “useful” list is TinEye. It’s an image search engine which allows you to upload an image, or you can provide an image URL, and then it will tell you where the image appears on the web. It’s a brilliant idea, and TinEye does a great job despite the fact that it’s still in a private beta.

To give you an example of how this works, the video demo on TinEye’s site explains that they uploaded a picture of the Mona Lisa. You know, the popular portrait of a woman painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 16th century? Once they uploaded the photo, TinEye went to work using pattern recognition algorithms to find locations on the web where the image appears. A whole list of places the photo was used, appeared.

A more detailed explanation of how the service works is, “TinEye uses sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms to find your image on the web without the use of metadata or watermarks. TinEye instantly analyzes your query image to create a compact digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ for it. TinEye searches for your image on the web by comparing its fingerprint to the fingerprint of every single other image in the TinEye search index.”


tineye 1-1.png

TinEye has tried to make it as easy as possible for people to use the service. They’ve come up with a Firefox Extension so that all you have to do is right-click on an image anywhere on the web in Firefox (e.g., a photo on eBay), and then you can search using TinEye. Now, not all pictures that it returns to you are exact replicas which is actually the cool part. TinEye is able to find variations and edits of the same photo. They have an index of 487 million images and they plan to add billions more in the future.

Not only is this service helpful for individuals (maybe graphic artists) trying to find where their work has been used without permission , it’s also helpful for companies. Digg is one company that already uses TinEye to help them identify duplicate story submissions that have an image. The only downside with the service at this point is that like many other new useful services out there, you need an invite to use it. TinEye says they’re currently at capacity but you can still request an invite and when they have more room for users, you’ll receive one. I don’t know about you, but to me this seems like a company that Google would snatch up in an instant!

You can sign-up to receive an invite here.

Source: Google Operating System

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