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.
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.
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.
Digg will still hold its traffic as it has been steady with a large number of bloggers using the service.
For Yahoo Buzz to get even more popular, they need to open it up to all the bloggers, not just via invites.
I am sure this will happen soon and Yahoo Buzz might take a big share of the social networking market.
Furthermore, Yahoo Buzz has a more diverse audience than Digg. While Digg’s young, male, techy audience has been the stuff of legend since the site’s beginnings, 51% of Yahoo Buzz’s visitors are women. This doesn’t matter much to the users but it does matter a great deal to the advertisers; another legend has it that diggers never click on ads, and this might not hold true for Yahoo Buzz.
Well, I haven’t used it honestly for couple months but I am impressed at their new real-time AJAX keyword suggestion feature.
They even have an “Explore concepts” feature, which I’d say is more towards Web 3.0 and the semantic web.
This functionality is way more advanced than Google (GOOG) at this point. I am sure Google has something in the works to compete against Yahoo’s innovations but today I am impressed at Yahoo’s improvements.
Now, if Yahoo keeps improves their search engine algorithm a little bit or join Google to make the GooHoo thing real, that’d be the day we have some really really good search engine.
Fuzz, a music portal/social networking site, has launched Blip, basically a Twitter-clone for Music lovers.
The most outstanding feature is that when people “blip” instead of “twitt”, they can link an MP3 song straight from the Fuzz database. This feature is really cool as I am actually listening to an MP3 “blipped” by one of Blip users.
Great stuff, although I am not an avid Twitter, I will be an avid Blipper as now I can hop from song to song.
But if music is indeed a significant part of Pownce’s future, then Blip is one step ahead. Call it “Twitter for Music” since it’s essentially just that: a way to suggest music and share your thoughts about it with a network of contacts.
The beauty of Blip is that, unlike with Pownce, no file uploads are necessary. Just search for the song you have in mind and Blip will grab it from Seeqpod, Skreemr, or parent company Fuzz’s own database of music. Your followers (”listeners”) can hear full versions of the songs you post using a Songza-like player at the bottom of the page.
Don’t miss out on the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose in 2 weeks from May 18th through 22nd if you are interested in what’s up and coming with Web2.0, Web3.0, and the semantic web.
As you can see in the video interview, Kirix Strata lets users view, organize, and manipulate data tables with desktop speeds and ease.
Although you could make a similar webapp, it wouldn’t perform as fast since you’d have to constantly connect to a web server.
Kirix Strata solves all that, and as a programmer myself, I am impressed at how quickly you can manipulate data. (If you watch the end of the video, you will see how quickly Strata can bring is RSS feeds to a MySQL table)
Now, there’s a LOT of applications that the Strata could be used for such as organizing your web database without coding, importing your database to your desktop, manipulating the database at desktop PC speed, and tons more.
This application is really geared towards those web programmers but if you are able to get the drift, this app is amazing and seems to have a bright future.
Here’s another video better explaining the features:
Kirix™ Strata™ is a “data browser” — a fusion of a web browser and a built-in relational database. Strata brings the sensibilities and simplicity of a web browser to the world of tabular data, making it easy to access, view and use data from any source.
Strata serves as a bridge between local data files, database management systems and data on the web. You can access data from local sources and across the web, mash it together, and quickly work with it to gain new insights or create ad hoc reports to share with others.
Strata makes it possible to manipulate and analyze data in a rapid-fire, interactive manner. You can cut out a number of steps for common data-related tasks and dramatically reduce the time it takes to get the results you want. For instance, with Strata, you can:
