Technovice.net - Internet

Gmail Is Open For Sign Up

nospam@example.com (jumanjisama) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:40:35 +0800

You must have heard of Gmail, right? But do you have a Gmail account? 2Gb plus of email storage space - that's a lot bro, more than double of what Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail offers and it's also free. I have been using Gmail for a few years already and i am really pleased with its service. I love the interface, the email search feature, the color, i just love everything about it. There are plenty of features that Gmails offers,you may view it by clicking on this link: Gmail Features. Previously, people can sign up to Gmail only by invites. Not starting from now on mate. Gmail is open for all !! If you don't already have a Gmail account, move your ass and get one (though i said ass, i actually meant fingers :D): Sign Up To Gmail. If you are not into all of the features, please don't say you are not impress with the 2Gb plus of email storage space, which actually keeps growing everyday :) Anyway, happy creating a new email account !

Microsoft's Maps and Virtual Earth

nospam@example.com (jumanjisama) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 04:56:43 +0800

Microsoft is taking a number of steps to improve the popularity of it's search engine. First, they introduced Windows Live, a new search homepage which apparently looks, or at least has some similarity in feature with Google. There are more improvements made, but the most significant, in my opinion, is the introduction of Windows Live Maps and Virtual Earth. Microsoft must really feel under pressure with the current growth of Google, well, it is not like i care. But really, it is totally not like Microsoft to implement such things, where has the Lame Microsoft gone?!. Anyway, enough of crap from me, back to the topic. Right now, it's seems that every major search engines are having their own Maps feature, which was popularized by Google. You may visit the maps search feature served by Microsoft by clicking on this link: Windows Live Maps. I didn't notice any breakthroughs there (maybe i don't want to), but i can't help noticing the application that complement Windows Live Maps, it is called Virtual Earth. Virtual Earth Just as the name implies, it is an application which you can use to virtually view the cities that you wanna visit in 3D, looks like this is Microsoft's smoking gun to counter the existence of Google Earth. I tried to test Virtual Earth for myself, but unluckily for me, it doesn't support my Windows language (i am using a German version of Windows). But there is a site, that gave a view of the functions and features of Windows Live Maps, which includes Virtual Earth, you may view it using this link: Intro to Live Maps ~Snapshot from the site - click for larger image~ This site is a bit funny, in case if you click any of the links at the site doesn't stop loading, please refresh the page, and try clicking on the link again, it worked for me :). Anyway, from what this presentation showed, Virtual Earth looks pretty impressive. Though it supports only English version of Windows (i am guessing) and has only a few cities available to be viewed in 3D, but it is still cool. So sad that i can't test it for myself :( I really hope this current drastic improvements made by Microsoft will not just stop here, rivalry and competition between search engines are always good, at least it is good for us :) . Since i can't test Virtual Earth for myself, please inform me how you think about it, if you have tested it, please !!! :) p/s: the image was 'stolen' by me from a site, the original link is: Search Engine Roundtable

Shopping At Google

nospam@example.com (jumanjisama) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:25:06 +0800

This entry is totally not tech related :) , but i guess that you would like to know about the new buzz in the net. Google has recently launched its Google Checkout, a shopping portal just like 2Checkout and Clickbank. I've went to the website to look around and it is kinda neat. Google Checkout is practically a directory of online shopping websites, but only websites by merchant that has registered with Google Checkout. So, what Google Checkout has to offer?? For customers, i don't think there is anything really special actually, it is almost the same as the two other online shopping portal i mentioned above.But as for merchants, it is a different story. Google offers incentives to them such as: 1.for every 1 dollar spent on Adword, the merchant can process 10 dollars in sales for free 2.there will a Google Checkout badge at every Adword the merchant has - showing to users that this guy is registered with Google Checkout For starters, Google Checkout seems to be doing quite good. It has managed to attract or persuade companies like Timberland, Starbucks and Dockers to use Google Checkout as the payment processing company. OK, that's all, i have done a big sin today by posting this entry :( , please don't hate me because i wrote about an unrelated topic. My intentions are good, wanna share news with you guys :)

Add Google Mini Gadgets To Your Google Homepage

nospam@example.com (jumanjisama) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:00:35 +0800

Does anyone of you have a Personalized Google Homepage? Well, if you do, and you really like to stay in your homepage while browsing the web, there are a few cool Google gadget for the task. It is called Google AJAX Search API gadgets. There are three flavours to choose from; Google Video Gadget, Google Map Search Gadget, and Google Mini Search Gadget. Just click on the names to go to the page and add them to your Personalized Google homepage. I have tested all three of them, and find them quite interesting. The only thing that i think is a bit inconvenient is it only caters to local searches, in other words, your search results will only consist of local web sites or maps. Other than that, i think it is a fine gadget to be in my homepage. For you guys who has your own homepage, i would really suggest getting this gadget. And for those who don't have even the slightest clue of what a Personalized Google Homepage is, learn more by going to this link : More About Google Personalized Homepage.

Google Ajax Search API

nospam@example.com (jumanjisama) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:43:04 +0800

This is another experiment done by Google, i just stumble upon it just now, while wondering around the web. It is a function allowing Google search to be done right inside a web or blog. Yeah, sounds familiar isn't it, but this is a bit different, the search result will come out in a drop down window, in the same page. Cool huh?? but it has one setback, only a number of web browsers supports this for now, Firefox, IE 6, and Safari,but Google says it will provide supports for additional browser soon.But i have tested it on both IE7 and Opera 9.01, seems to works just as well. It is still in development stage though, only version 0.1, no ads are in the search results for now, but in the upcoming version 1.0, Google says it will have ads, maybe a good news for AdWords Publishers. The search result covers 4 categories or more like 4 different search types. The categories are Local,Videos,Web and Blog; all of them are self explainatory. I find this quite a useful feature, as you might want your search to be more broader,covering not only websites. But i would suggest adding an Image Search category as well, to complete the whole package. The final characteristic of the API is that the search results may also be expandable up to 8 items per category, and retracted to show only one item. I have made a test page for this, so you can play with around ;) : Google Ajax Search API

Intro To Search Engines

nospam@example.com (jumanjisama) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:49:12 +0800

Everyday, everyone , maybe not all but most people,connects to the Net because of one main reason, to find informations. How do you do this? One way is using the search bar up in your browser, another is using search engines. Learn more about search engines in this article.

If you want to look something up in the net, and you might use one of the two ways that i mentioned above, but personally i prefer using search engines, the results are better and sometimes, i can use certain type of search engines to find certain type of information material i require.

Some examples of popular search engines are Yahoo!, Google, MSN and Ask.com.This four can be considered as four most known search engines. You can click on the names of the search engines to look at their main page. At every one of the page, there will be a typing area, or search bar, where you will type keywords or phrases describing the information you want, then there is a button at the end of the search bar, you click on it to start your search.

After you have clicked on the search button ( it can be in various names such as Go!, Web Search, or Search web ), you will then be directed to a page filled with web link that have best match of the keywords or phrases you entered. You might not find exactly what you want on every first attempt, most of the time, you need to be creative when choosing which keywords or phrases to use. Practice makes you a better Internet searcher ( i hope i put that it the right context ).

What you need to do after you got your search results, is to click on it. There is two way of doing so, right clicking or left clicking( look at your mouse, there is left and right button, if you cant find them, then you got the wrong mouse). Normally, left clicking will directly bring you to the page you want, but right clicking can give you some other options.

When you right click on the link, you will be given choices, but i want to emphasis only two, in Internet explorer you might find the option 'Open in a new window', if you choose that, the link will open the page in a new window, and in Firefox, you have another option,other than opening a new window, that is ' Open link in a new tab'. This option will allow the link to open the page in the same window, but in a different tab. It is hard to explain tab browsing, it is best to click on the thumbnail below, to view the examplesy yourself.

After you have finished exploring and using the Search Engines i mentioned above, you might want to try some of the other search engines that are listed below for getting better results when you are looking a certain type of information material.

Youtube - if you are looking for videos, then better start here, but no porn please :-)
Wikipedia - if you are looking explanation for something, it is like an online version of encyclopedia.
Google Images and Flickr - If you are looking for images.

For further reading, please click here