Barkuda.NeT

By Evan Ackerman

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We have been hearing for long that the creator of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales has been working on a cool web 2.0 search engine called Wikia that will turn out to be a big competitor to Google Search.

Wikia Search Alpha has recently launched and it does not look that much promising at all. However that is probably because it is just in its first Alpha stage.

Wikia basically brings a new concept to the world of search engines called Freely licensed (open source) search. Means that the users will be able to rate the search results according to their relevancy and the search results will accordingly get their search engine rankings in Wikia.

This is probably a good new initiative to throw back black hat seo techniques and other methods that would allow a programmer to manipulate the search engine rankings for a particular keyword. However this also does not make Wikia a 100% fool proof search engine. Dear SEO freaks would again figure out some way to manipulate Wikia whether sooner or later.

The Alpha release is pretty much low on quality and has a lot of bugs. There is a cool feature just like Wikipedia which will allow users to edit excerpts and descriptions related to a website or web page.

I tested Wikia for the keyword “Sizlopedia” and luckily it did had Sizlopedia indexed already. Try it out for your blog and see if its worth it.

Most serious digital photographers know that using a graphics tablet is the best way by far when it comes to editing and making selections in Photoshop and other imaging applications. Although there is a learning curve when switching from a mouse to a pen, after using one, I don’t know of any photographers that would go back to the old method. Along with the finer control you have by holding a pen, and the more natural feeling of drawing compared to moving a mouse around (a method I compare to drawing with a bar of soap), you also gain functionality.
The most popular brand of pen tablet has long been the Wacom line, with the Intuos 3 being the serious user’s choice, and the Graphire Bluetooth a good option for those needing a wireless device. The drawback for more casual users though has been the rather steep price point. With a price of $229.95 for the smallest (4×6) version of the Intuos3, justifying a graphics tablet is difficult for the casual user. In response to that, Wacom has introduced the new Bamboo and Bamboo Fun pen tablets.

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We heard a rumor that Google was going to launch a new interface for users accessing the site via an iPhone in the next few days. But an anonymous tip let us know it actually launched without any warning or announcement this evening.

If you visit Google.com from an iPhone, you now get a menu of services to choose from - home (search box), Gmail, Calendar, Reader and More (docs, sms, goog-411, news, photos, blogger and notebook). It’s basically all of the core Google services, accessible from a single easy to use menu.

The new application has what is now considered a signature look for the iPhone. The look and feel of many of the interface elements are similar to those created by Joe Hewitt, whose sample framework and code have been used in dozens of iPhone applications (see his Facebook product here). I don’t know if Google used any of his freely offered code, but it certainly has the look of one of his applications.

Accessing the site through other mobile devices continues to deliver the old Google Mobile interface.

More pictures of the interface are below, created with a simulator. Real but poor quality images are here.

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Computer Arts 2004 Magazine. 

175 mb total | RS only

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Immediate opinions and impressions are formed the moment a new visitor arrives at your website. Even though the first impression comes within just a few seconds, it can take a very long time to reverse a negative first impression, if you’re given the chance at all. In a competitive marketplace a bad first impression is likely to be the last encounter that visitor has with your website, as they’re unlikely to return.

In order to create a positive first impression, you have to know specifically what your goals are for the first few seconds of a new visit. It may sound obvious, but it’s often overlooked. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself about the first impressions that are being created by your website.

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I’ve had a Gmail account since September 7th, 2004 and currently have 13096 conversations (and counting) in my “All Mail” box using up roughly 1GB of space.  One of my first suggestions to the Gmail team was IMAP, and I am glad to see that it has finally made its way in.

The advantage of IMAP over POP is that you can see a list of your folders (or in Gmail’s case, tags) and emails that you can move around, mark read/unread, reply, forward, etc. right in your favourite email client, and any action will be synced with the server.  Thus, you can mark mail as read, and label it some tags from Outlook, and Gmail will automatically do the same thing on their side as well.  Also, since all the actions and mail are synced with the Gmail server, whenever you login from any client configured for your email, or from the Gmail web interface, you will see the same list of emails in the same tags.  POP only allows you to get the mail (in one single inbox folder, relying on your client to filter any incoming mail), but any further actions won’t be synced up.

I’ve known that Gmail was going to add in IMAP a week or two ago while reading “Look out Outlook IMAP for Gmail is Coming” on GottaBeMobile, but I didn’t realize that I would get the functionality so quickly.  So I found the IMAP feature in my Gmail today (I don’t use the web interface much) and I thought I’d try it out.  It took a while to sync up all the folders and headers.  Anyway, I’m still debating whether or not to keep it.  I’m still trying to figure out how to archive mail from the inbox, and trying to get Outlook to download the entire messages from the server.

Last week I mentioned about the Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio that came up for download on Connect, well this week, I will be mentioning the Windows Live Spaces Photos API (alpha), which has also just come up for download under the same Connection on Connect.Angus Logan briefly mentioned it on his blog last week in a video interview that he did, which certainly got my attention, and it appears it is now readily available.

The download itself is simply a CHM file with all the documentation and code examples in it, so expect my normal “How To” guide on how to use it. So get cracking, download the documentation and let us know if you plan to use it.