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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Hyperwords - All Text Becomes Interactive

This project has been in the media for a while, The New York Times, Techcrunch, Wired, The Guardian, PC Magazine - you name it have alreaqdy written about it.. When I first checked out Hyperwords, I was indifferent and thinking "one of those unnecessary extensions for the trash bin". As it turns out, Hyperwords is so much more than the traditional context search tool we've gotten to know. Check out the video for a better idea of what Hyperwords can do for you.
Hyperwords has features you want along with features you don't want or like; luckily, it's very configurable so you can turn off any features you're not into without too much trouble.
It makes every word on every page clickable, not just links. Select any text and choose one of the numerous commands:
  • Search engines: including sites, blogs, academic, people, news, pictures and video.
  • References: Wikipedia, Google Books, Wiktionary, Answers.com, Internet Movie Database, World Factbook, Dictionary, UrbanDictionary, Quotations, Acronymfinder and share price.
  • Translation between numerous languages.
  • Conversions between currencies and other units.
  • Go via Google Lucky, URL and Skype.
  • Copy text plain or with URL.
  • Print page or selection.
  • Shop at 8 Internet shops.
  • Email with your desktop email program or via Gmail & Yahoo! Mail.
  • Tag with 6 different taggers and search.
  • Blog with Blogger and WordPress as well as blog search with Technorati, IceRocket and Clusty.
  • Look up maps, local time, weather and package tracking.
  • Page Information about the page you are looking at including what pages link to it and who owns it.
...all in a single click!
The Firefox extension is the only implementation of Hyperwords at the moment; download it here. Hyperwords functionality is intended to be available on every application on your computer, starting with other web browsers and with email programs later...
Read more at the Hyperwords home.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Eno Explains 'Music for Airports'

The clarity of his thought is refreshing. Every airport in the world should play nothing but this music ;-)

...other comments: "That's actually pretty funny because Music for Airports sounds more like it was written for the dentist's office than the airport terminal" ... "This is kinda like Kraftwerk - but for airports" ... "It's funny. Technically, all the criteria he states should produce good music for a public space. However, what it actually ends up producing is very dull, depressing, sleep-inducing music that many people such as myself will absolutely hate ..."
What do you think?
This was seized 4 u at YouTube
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Saturday, June 16, 2007

20 Tips for More Efficient Google Search

For millions of people, Google is an indispensable search tool that they use every day, in all facets of their lives. From work or school, research, to looking up movies and celebrities to news and gossip, Google is the go-to search engine. But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient. Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. Use this guide to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you're looking for, and quickly.
  1. Either/or. Google normally searches for pages that contain all the words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use the OR operator -- or use the "|" symbol (pipe symbol) to save you a keystroke. [dumb | little | man]
  2. Quotes. If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["dumb little man"] will only find that exact phrase. [dumb "little man"] will find pages that contain the word dumb and the exact phrase "little man".
  3. Not. If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol. [-dumb little man] will return pages that contain "little" and "man" but that don't contain "dumb".
  4. Similar terms. Use the "~" symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain "funny little man" and "stupid little man" but not "dumb little man".
  5. Wildcard. The "*" symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you're trying to find the lyrics to a song, but can't remember the exact lyrics. [can't * me love lyrics] will return the Beatles song you're looking for. It's also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such as educational information: ["dumb little man" research *.edu].
  6. Advanced search. If you can't remember any of these operators, you can always use Google's advanced search.
  7. Definitions. Use the "define:" operator to get a quick definition. [define:dumb] will give you a whole host of definitions from different sources, with links.
  8. Calculator. One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It's faster than calling up your computer's calculator in most cases. Use the +, -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.
  9. Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).
  10. Site-specific. Use the "site:" operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman.com leo] will search for the term "leo" only within this blog.
  11. Backlinks. The "link:" operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.
  12. Vertical search. Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more: Blog Search, Book Search, Scholar, Catalogs, Code Search, Directory, Finance, Images, Local, Maps, News, Patent Search, Product Search & Video.
  13. Movies. Use the "movie:" operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.
  14. Music. The "music:" operator returns content related to music only.
  15. Unit converter. Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: [12 meters in yards]
  16. Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for: Telephone area codes, UPC codes, stock quotes (using the stock symbol) etc.
  17. File types. If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the "filetype:" operator.
  18. Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as "inurl:", "intitle:", "intext:", and "inanchor:". Those search for a term only within the URL, the title, the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link).
  19. Cached pages. Looking for a version of a page the Google stores on its own servers? This can help with outdated or update pages. Use the "cached:" operator.
  20. Answer to life, the universe, and everything. Search for that phrase, in lower case, and This was seized 4 u at DumbLittleMan.com via Lifehacker
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