Google(GOOG) has just announced public opening of their new wiki-knowledge product called “Knol”.
After months of deliberation since December of last year, this project is finally open for people to use.
Let’s take a quick look:
For responding to a Knol subject such as this Lung Cancer article, the user can leave a review with a rating. This supposedly validates the experts’ writing and becomes part of Knol’s rating system.
Knol also let’s you leave comments. I believe the comments section is really for those quick comments but the review section should be used for expert reviewers of that subject.
Let’s take a look at the writing aspects of Knol. You can write a new Knol yourself but you need to stay within these guidelines:
The Knol project is a site that hosts many knols — units of knowledge — written about various subjects. The authors of the knols can take credit for their writing, provide credentials, and elicit peer reviews and comments. Users can provide feedback, comments, related information. So the Knol project is a platform for sharing information, with multiple cues that help you evaluate the quality and veracity of information.
Knols are indexed by the big search engines, of course. And well-written knols become popular the same as regular web pages. The Knol site allows anyone to write and manage knols through a browser on any computer.
Writing a good Knol can definitely boost your SEO and online visibility, especially you are good at what you write about.
Here’s a screenshot of writing a new Knol. It looks pretty simple and basically it’s like Wikipedia but easier to use.
I don’t know how popular this Knol Project will become but I am sure many webmasters will take advantage of the early SEO you can gain from writing expertise articles.
Wow, Wordpress 2.6 is out with some really cool new features.
First of all, the new Wordpress 2.6 adds ability to edit multiple revisions, sorta like Wiki editing.
Second, the new Wordpress allows you to cut and paste text and images easily using a bookmarklet.
Check out the video for the features:
Version 2.6 “Tyner,” named for jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, contains a number of new features that make WordPress a more powerful CMS: you can now track changes to every post and page and easily post from wherever you are on the web, plus there are dozens of incremental improvements to the features introduced in version 2.5.
Here’s comes Twellow, a search engine for twitters basically. I typed, “zedomax” and found my twitter account which is cool I guess.
Beyond that, there are other functions like you can search by categories and whatnot.
I think this is a really good idea as search engines have proven to make a lot of money. (Google???)
Twellow is a great new search tool and directory for discovering Twitter users that could fundamentally change the way people use the microblogging service.
Launched by the same people behind the tech news site WebProNews, Twellow has indexed more than 300,000 users and sorted them into categories like programming, marketing, graphic design, and dozens of others to help you find users who list those characteristics in their Twitter biographies. There are also sub-categories, so within “Programming” you can browse users who list PHP, Ruby on Rails, or another programming ski
HotPads.com provides interesting heat maps. I am not sure how accurate it is but the service looks very promising, especially if you are looking to rent or buy in certain area.
Above is a heat map of household income of San Francisco. The meter stops at about $61K, I wish it went further to something like $200-300K at least.
HotPads, which brought us the foreclose heat map, now offers a handy rent ratio heat map. The rent ratio is a home’s sale price divided by the annual rent of a comparable home in the same neighborhood. Looking at the rent ratio gives you a quick sense of whether it makes more sense to rent or buy in a particular neighborhood. If the ratio is high (red on the map), it is usually a good indication that you are better off renting. If it is low (blue on the map), you are better off buying.
Jobirn is a new type of job search network where job seekers can get a “referral” to their desired job. It’s still in “alpha” stages but does look promising with the new niche they have created to differentiate from all the “other” job search sites. (Thanks Bruce for the tip!)
Jobirn is free referral network that connects applicants with employees inside the company where they would like to work. Jobirn makes connecting easy through features available inside the website such as video conferencing, chat and thousands of jobs. We helps job seekers get a referral to their ideal job, and company insiders find the right candidate. If you are a hiring manager or a recruiter, Jobirn is also a free recruitment platform.
Jobirn believes through company employee referral network, both recruitment and job hunt will be more efficient and effective. First, employees can create greater value to the company. Jobirn aggregates video interview and instant web-chat ( now support Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, GTalk and AIM.) for referrers easy to refer a candidate. Second, hunting job through referral network is times more effective than job board, which you can get immediate response and useful resource.
Xoost, a new beta search engine, was just launched. It’s a new search engine that let’s search sites through what seems like Google API, Yahoo API, and LIve search API.
Basically you get all three major search engines in one plus you get to tag and bookmark all your searches.
On top of that, you can also share your searches on your favorite social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.
A lot of experts have been pointing out that Google needs some type of human interaction in order to reach the next level. Xoost seems to have done just that, taking Google to another level and it might grow big if they can pick up a lot of active users.
Do you Search the Web for your favourite topics and you would like to share your search skills with your friends? Xoost is the only place for you. With Xoost you will web search what you like most, your search stream will be continuously added to your profile, and you will socialize with other Xoosters on the basis of common search interests.
Your searches and related websites will be automatically stored in your account and you will be able to access them anytime. In addition, you can share your Xoost searches with your friends on other networks such as Facebook or Twitter and you can tag or delete any search and related website as you like most. Xoost is simple, viral, scalable, enjoyable and is currently in private beta test: join the beta if you like the concept.
One of my favorite pizzas, Pizza Hut, launches Adobe Flex Application. Basically, you can order using their desktop Adobe Flex app instead of the traditional online ordering.
Mind you, I was an employee of Pizza Hut about 10 years ago.
The new Flex application also lets the user view their older orders as you can see here: (my last order)
The great advantage of an Adobe Flex app like this? I don’t have to wait for the site to load and ordering is much quicker than using Pizza Hut’s online ordering system.
Adobe Air is a wonderful platform, no doubt about it. Still, who thought it would hit the mainstream quickly enough to get the attention of a multi-national restaurant chain like Pizza Hut? Jay Hathaway of DownloadSquad brings to our attention this release, which you can pull off the Web to start ordering that deep dish immediately. You can place all your usual orders as well as save some of your favorite configurations for quick repeat ordering. Perfect for the college crowd. And the startup crowd. Even the blogger crowd!
AjaxDaddy give you some real good free code sniplets on various different Ajax implementations. Although I don’t have use for this as I prefer from-scratch Ajax coding, this can be very useful for anyone who’s not familiar with Ajax technology.
For Your Reference, what is AJAX?
AJAX is simply a combination of XMLHTTP, Javascript, and PHP to bring you “refreshing” of pages without reloading. You can read more about it here, here’s some books I also recommend you reading to get started:
JavaScript and Ajax for the Web - This is the best book to get you started with AJAX, I’ve read all the others ones but not as comprehensive and easy to read as this one.
Ajax Hacks - This book has lots of little tips and tricks for your Ajax code, definitely recommended if you are serious about Ajax development/learning.
AjaxBuddy, a free repository of Web 2.0-style site tools, is great for site owners who don’t have time to learn an entire programming language, or just need a starter block of code to get building. Grab free, easy-to-modify code for Flickr-like editing fields, quick-loading slideshows and tabbed galleries, instant graphs, date-choosing calendars, and dozens more examples.
