SemantiFind is a newly launched semantic search tool which made its debut at the recent DEMO conference. Unlike other semantic search engines such as Hakia and the recently acquired Powerset, SemantiFind isn't looking to create a whole new search engine from scratch. Instead, they decided to improve upon the one engine we already use: Google.
According to a number of rumors this morning, Google is about to acquire the well-known game development company Valve. Valve is best known for its Half-Life games and Steam, a content distribution platform which it uses to sell and distribute PC games from various developers with the help of a desktop client. Currently, Steam distributes close to 440 games and has over 15 million active users. We assume that Google is mostly interested in the technology behind Steam and no so much in the distribution or game development business of Valve.
Many Web 2.0 companies have tried to make money by charging for their product, but it can be hard work - especially if the product started out as free. Jott, a voice to text transcription service, is an example of one that took the plunge and succeeded.
Jott moved to a paid model following a successful free beta. I spoke with Jott CEO John Pollard to learn how they did it and how it is working out for them.
MySpace today announced that it will work together with the Commission for Presidential Debates (CPD) to broadcast the upcoming presidential debates in the U.S. live on the social networking site. MySpace and the CPD also created MyDebates.org, where users can learn more about the issues and candidates through various quizzes and videos. Maybe the most interesting feature of the site, however, is that it (anonymously) collects all the data from users who take the "issue quizzes" and then displays those in a well designed set of statistics.
Is social media nothing but snake oil? Sometimes it can seem that way. As economies shift and trends emerge, would-be experts start popping up like weeds. Really good social media experts are a treasure - and they're not always easy to find.
In this post we highlight seven social media consultants that consistently bring tangible value to the table. These folks aren't full of hot air - they use their blogs to offer clear examples, links, tutorials and other resources you can put to use. If the goods you can see for free are so solid, that's all the more reason to investigate paying for these peoples' services. We hope this list will help you get smarter and maybe save a whole lot of money and anguish.
Cognition Technologies, a Semantic Web company that specialises in Natural Language Processing (NLP) search, is today announcing the release of what it claims is "the largest commercially available Semantic Map of the English language." We interviewed Cognition CEO Scott Janus to find out what this means.
We also discovered that Cognition, which currently licenses its technology to other organizations, is planning to build a general consumer search engine - which will compete with Google and others.
A company who believes they have the solution to our online security woes is Yubico, makers of a small USB dongle known as the Yubikey. This ingenious authentication solution can be combined with OpenID or other third party web sites to provide secure authentication on the web.
Authentication is an area of security that is more important than ever, especially since we're now using the web to access all sorts of private data, from personal communications to online banking sites. Yet as those services become more sophisticated and complex, so do the techniques used by criminals wanting access to our private information. Although many of these sites force you to create strong passwords, a password alone is not your best defense against identity thieves. For the best security, multi-factor authentication is needed, and that's what Yubikey provides.
Two months ago, Google released a widget for iGoogle that allowed users to search for keywords in election related speeches on YouTube. Today, Google expanded the scope of this search to a larger selection of political videos and the widget graduated to become a full-blown Google Labs product named GAUDI. Interestingly, the tagline in Google Labs describes the product as a search for "what people are saying inside YouTube videos," even though its focus so far is very narrow. Over time, we expect Google to expand this service to cover a larger selection of videos or even all of YouTube.
Time Inc. service offers cool idea, uninspired selection.
Time Inc. launched its much anticipated magazine meta-subscription service Maghound today. The idea is that for a small fee, starting at three titles for $4.95 a month, you can swap out magazine subscriptions every month. It's like Netflix for magazine subscriptions, but unlike Netflix the selection is awful. We like the idea a lot though and we hope it will improve.
Chances are, you have seen one of those photocopied, five dollar zines about anything from local bands to organic gardening in your favorite magazine store. Florida based startup OpenZine is trying to take this idea of self-published amateur magazines to the web. In a world where blog publishing is ubiquitous and easy, however, what does OpenZine offer that couldn't be done with a blog? While the idea of taking zines to the web sounds intriguing, superior publishing methods already exist for the web, and OpenZine, even though it has some interesting features, feels like a step backwards.
