Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Why Not Draw For The News?

http://www.doodlebuzz.com/

Doodle Buzz

At first glance this mashup seems to be a total waste of time, but if you really go in depth and see what it has to offer then you will be surprised at what you will find. First you just draw a line of any sort and when you are done a series of news stories about your topic will show up. Yes they are overlapped, but it will highlight the one your cursor is on. When you click on one you can draw another line and it will show a small blip about the article and if you want to delve deeper you can click on one of the related words. If you choose to click on the story then it will take you to that article, but if you choose a related word you must draw another line and more related stories will show up. It keeps going until you find the appropriate article.

It is extremely easy to use but the only problem with it is that the stories all overlap each other and are hard to see from time to time. This website could be useful if the searcher is very bored of the regular search engines. One thing that is specific to this website and not others is that you can actually click on an article and still be able to search other things relating to that article. It makes deep research much easier. At the same time I can see people many people disliking the way it works.

Personally I would never use it because all the articles overlap each other, but it is fun to play around with for a while. It fits into web 2.0 is because it takes searching to a very interactive level, the researcher can now literally draw out their ideas.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Touch Screen Soon to be Obsolete

Does Touchless Tech Point the Way Ahead?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/10/db.touchless/index.html

The new iPhone has created such an immense crave for touch screen phones and if you do not have one then you are behind the times, but is the touch screen about to be obsolete? That is very much possible in the near future. A laboratory called LM3Labs is working on something called AirStrike which is a device that uses cameras in your keyboard to track your finger movements. Why would you be waving your fingers above your keyboard you may be asking? The reason for this would be to move windows, minimize them, and scroll around the screen by just the flick of your finger. Even though some people think that technology is moving too fast; it is going in the right direction. With our world speeding up and wanting things faster than ever this would be a perfect instillation into our daily computer use. Since this speeds things up just that little bit more some people may think that it would create even more havoc and disorganization in our lives. I beg to differ, I believe that this would actually keep us more organized while surfing the web and researching. It would allow us to organize our desktops and search windows in any order we wish, it would be a much awaited upgrade for our hectic lives.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The New Virtual World

Designers Developing Virtual-Reality 'Cocoon'

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/11/immersive.cocoon/index.html

Imagine all of your research assignments literally being at the tip of your fingers. With the new invention of the Cocoon this is now going to be a reality, the researcher can actually go to the site of Pompeii, for example, and gather information just by touching the building they are looking at. Not only will this allow you to do research in a much more interactive way, the device also allows video games to be much more interactive as well. It is a human size cocoon that senses your body movements and makes you believe you are moving in a 3-D world. With this new virtual world being invented businesses would also find this extremely useful; it would allow them to have virtual meetings and in doing so save a lot of time. Even though this is a very futuristic idea and it is not yet completed for sale it is something that will reshape our world in a way we cannot even imagine. It is on hold until 2014 and even then is not going to be sold to the general public, but it is still a glimpse into what our world will be experiencing within the somewhat near future.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Surfing With No Trace

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/28/microsoft.broswer.explorer.ap/index.html

Microsoft is in the beta stage of coming out with their new search browser, Internet Explorer 8. The amazing thing about this new browser is that its users will be able to search the internet without leaving a trace of where they have been. The software that is used for this is called InPrivateBlocking. This helps block advertising agencies from tracking where you search and then hitting you with advertisements that are geared towards your personality. This will help frequent browsers to feel more safe and help them feel less like they are being watched; it will make them feel more secure and at ease. From and browsers point of view this idea is a fantastic addition to a search engine but from a marketers point of view this is going to make it much harder for internet advertisers to reach their target market. Like the article says, “If InPrivateBlocking was widely adopted by IE8 users, small sites that rely almost exclusively on outside companies to serve ads couldn't survive”. It would affect everyone tremendously.