On its Google Research blog, the company has offered a brief introduction to VisualRank, a system that sorts out images by means of visual cues rather than by text associated with the images.
The VisualRank system is not yet live, and Google intimated that the image search technology would not become more widely available anytime soon. It did say that “in the coming months” it would offer more details on an “approach that has an easy integration with both text and visual clues.”
Pretty amazing what you can do with a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch. Coming soon via the ModMyiPhone source, this app will put your musical skills to the test. You can add your own instruments, record, mix. You can even add a live audience. Definitely a fun app to have to kill time while waiting for a plane…
The i’m Initiative from Microsoft makes helping social causes easy. Every time you use Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft will share a portion of their advertising revenue with some of the world’s most effective social cause organizations. They’ve set no cap on the amount they’ll donate to each organization. The sky’s the limit. And it’s free!
i’m is about making a difference. Not in a huge expensive way, not in a time-consuming way. But in a simple, effective way.
It’s an opt-in and fairly unintrusive service that just puts an extra i’m-specific advertisement at the end of your emails, or an i’m icon next to your buddy list name. The more email and messages users send, the more money Microsoft donates to the charities of those users’ choices.
With every e-mail and instant message, you help address an issue you feel passionate about, including poverty, child protection, disease, environmental degradation and animal protection.
A few days ago I posted about AT&T offering free wifi to iPhone owners at all its hotspots, including Starbucks and Barnes & Noble locations. Well, I guess they are not anymore!
Many people reported today that the free wifi is not available anymore. This service has never been made official so maybe it was just a test or a way to create buzz? AT&T has declined to comment on this.
Microsoft announced today that it was withdrawing their offer to acquire Yahoo. Microsoft raised its bid from $31/share to $33/share (that’s an extra $5 billion) but Yahoo didn’t want to settle for less than $37/share.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also confirmed that they will not go hostile by taking their offer directly to Yahoo’s stakeholders.
Microsoft, who intended to buy Yahoo to get bigger in the online ad business says they can make it without Yahoo. While it’s probably true, I think it’s going to take Microsoft a few years and billions of dollars.
I am really disappointed as I hoped Microsoft would become the first real competition to the evil Google.
I spent a few hours last night tweaking codes to come up with this new design. It all started with Angie (my co-worker) telling me she didn’t like the old theme. That was just what I needed to get on it and make it look better (or so I think…).
There are still a few things that I can’t figure out such as the image border. All images have a grey border and I like this. The problem is I don’t want this border for the sidebar and the footer images. I know I have to create a new attribute in the CSS file but I can’t figure out how to do this. Can any of you help?
I hate to fly! To me, flying in economy class is like riding in a bus that has wings. I rarely had very good experiences with airlines.
This week I flew Virgin America (different from Virgin Atlantic) for the first time and I have to say I was impressed. The quality of the service on ground and in flight was outstanding. The staff is super friendly and, they all look good! Yes, they do! It’s like the myth of the hot air attendant is real again…
The folks at iPhon.fr posted some pictures of what could well be the new iPhone. They can’t guarantee whether these are actual pictures or fakes.
What makes me doubt these are real pictures is how scratched up the rear of the unit appears to be.
It’s a slick design though.
AT&T hotspots are now offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users. Barnes and Noble, Starbucks and presumably AT&T’s 71,000 other Wi-fi hotspot locations are now offering iPhone users a custom portal to access free Wi-Fi. A special iPhone formatted page asks for your mobile phone number. Once entered, you can access the Wi-Fi access for free.
I recently wrote an article about minorities in franchising and how it is important for franchise companies to target minorities, especially the Hispanic communities as they are soon to be majorities…
The US Census Bureau reported today that the number of Hispanics in the United States grew to 45.5 million last year, and the country’s largest minority group now makes up more than 15 percent of the US population.