Internet & Search
How to Integrate Skype and MythTV
One of the things I am really confident will happen in the near future is an integration between our TV and phones. In the past years Skype and VoIP improved significantly but yet we have to see an example of seamless integration between those technologies. In my living room I have a big flat screen [...]
Google Reader tells Google what you Like and what to Index
While most of the Facebook‘s generation kids who populate the Internet nowadays have no idea about what RSS feeds are (but likely “follow” CNN on Twitter), there is still some percentage of tech-savvy people (me included) who take a look to their favorites feeds every morning before starting their day. Not many RSS feeds reader [...]
Facebook will use the Like Button to Personalize Search and Improve ADs
There has been a lot of chatting around the new Facebook’s Like Button. Some people believe it will be great for SEO, other that will increase distribution on Facebook, etc… But Facebook is smarter than that: they want to create a great search engine, possibly a personalized one, and improve their ADs platform. Traditional search [...]
Google Collected Wifi Data for Geo-location Purposes
In the past days there have been a lot of discussions about the public admission of collecting Wifi data from Google. This has been labeled as “mistake” but do not you wonder why Google was collecting those Wifi data in the first place? They were collecting MAC addresses and network SSIDs for geo-location purposes. Since [...]
Twitter stopped tracking URLs clicks on Twitter.com
It looks like Twitter stopped tracking clicks on the URLs shared by the users on its own website. Given the recent run of the URLs shorteners towards analytics products and the promises of Twitter about the “resonance” on the ADs platform this seems a very odd move. Maybe they were overwhelmed with data/logs and thought [...]
Web Pages Language Classification: Bayes, Characters and n-grams
Most search engines start focusing on only one language (e.g., English) because it is simpler, requires almost no characters encoding, and has a wide audience. Wherever you want to index only pages written in English or support all the language of the world, a fast page language classification is one of the first tasks that [...]
TurboTax costs $5 less without Cookies
With the exception of last year (changing job and state, I needed professional help) I always filed my taxes using TurboTax. It is nice, simple to use, and reasonably priced. This year was no exception, but before finding out that Chase and Bank of America customers have a 35% discount on it, I went on [...]
Google integrates Profile Results and search links to Social Networks
Looking for names on Google now shows a “Profile Search” results box with the two best hits, an invite to create your Google Profile (in case you are doing a vanity search) and quick links to MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn search pages.
Google Search Suggestions: Men are More Worried about Manhood than IQ
Analysing query logs is really amusing some times. This is a screenshot from Google’s Search Suggestions for queries which start with the word “average”. Here are a few extrapolation from these suggestions: 1) Men are more worried about the length of their penis than their IQ. 2) Height is more important for men, weight for [...]
Want your URL Shortener? Buy a Domain and Use Bit.ly, like Techcrunch and New York Times
With the diffusion of Twitter and other social sharing communities there is a lot of buzz over URLs shortening. Every major company wants to have its own URLs shortening domain: Google (goo.gl), TechCrunch (tcrn.ch), New York Times (nyti.ms), FourSquare (4sq.com), Fox News (fxn.ws), Delicious (icio.us), Bing (fa.il), … Did they all really setup some highly [...]
