Archive for the 'idea sites' Category

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Protecting web form from spam

Published on 10 April, 2006 in idea sites and ideas. 3 Comments

While we are still on the topic of spam, I ran across this idea today.

Protect Web Form is an initiative to stop web form spam. Anyone running a blog, wiki, forum or even a website for a while will soon discover web form spam.

Basically any web form is a target for spam, be it a feedback form or a blog comment.

The reason spam continues is because the stake is high. More spam leads to more traffic, leads to more sales.

Since Google ranks content in blog and wiki highly, there are huge incentive for spammers to target blogs and wiki.

Most blog and wiki software have some form of spam defence. WordPress’s Akismet plugin had been very effective in stopping spam to this blog.

However if you using an application with limited spam protection, give ProtectWebForm.com a try.

Continue reading ‘Protecting web form from spam’

Wow! Google Analytics

Published on 30 March, 2006 in beta, idea sites and thoughts. 0 Comments

This blog is fast becoming a Google mouthpiece. Yet another post related to Google. Google is getting so much into my online activities that it’s freaky.

I use Gmail solely for my email now. I use Adsense and Adword. Since I use Firefox, Google is my default search. I am now starting with Google Analytics.

All these I credit to Google’s international friendliness. While Yahoo and Microsoft restricted their beta stuffs only to US user, Google offers it’s beta service internationally.

Too bad that Y! and MS do not get the globalness of the Internet.

Today I finally received an invite to Google Analytics. The request was submitted in Janurary and I wondered when I will get the elusive invite.

Only one word is sufficient as I waste no time to sign in – “Wow!”.

Certainly no comparison to open source stuff like Analog, AWStats or Webalizer.

I’m still waiting for the data to be collected but after a few hours I’m learning more about my website than I previously had.

Now this is seriously an unfair advantage.

For those that had been using it a few months back, how had it helped you?

Google doing Finance

Published on 26 March, 2006 in beta and idea sites. 0 Comments

Google Finance beta Google just launched some thing many people had been anticipating – Google Finance.

What took them so long? Google News had been around for years. One would think a finance site is a no brainer.

Taking a quick look,

No chart for markets outside the US.
For US companies, there is a nice flash chart that links to news, (see Google, Yahoo)
Mouse over management name for bio. Good presentation.
Blog posts are included as part of the company information. Interesting.
Very rudimentary portfolio function

The way for Google Finance to really differentiate from Yahoo and MSN is to do what they do best – web services. Expose financial data to users so that users can mix and mash financial information in all manner imaginable. If they do, it will be the biggest coup since Google Map.

I certainly have a few ideas up my mind that could use some financial information. Will they do that?

What others was saying before the launch:

Rumor Alert: Google Finance? – DownloadSquad
Next up: Google Finance – Silicon Beat

Well, it’s here now!

What others are saying now? Let’s hear from insider in Google and Yahoo.

I like the search in Google Finance – Matt Cutts
Why Google Finance Makes Me Sad – Jeremy Zawodny

Stumble and Annotate Along

Published on 25 March, 2006 in idea sites, ideas, startup, thoughts and web 2.0. 0 Comments

Wikalong

The idea behind Wikalong, as they put it, “a wiki-margin for the internet“.

Wikalong is a Firefox extension. When installed, it links to a wiki page on the sidebar of Firefox corresponding to the site that you are looking at.

For example, this is how this blog look like with the Wikalong on the sidebar.

Anotation can be added, in wiki style, corresponding to the page. In this way discussion or commentary on the page can be added.

One thing to note though, Wikalong cannot distinguish between http://59ideas.com/blog and http://59ideas.com/blog/index.php. Although the same page, it will lead to different Wikalong page.

An interesting aspect of Wikalong is that the wiki page store can be customised. This means that the annotations can be saved to a different server other than the default.

Can you see any applications for this?
It can certainly use it to comment on web projects among a group of developers.
Annotation and surfing with a Firefox extension is not a new idea. Another similar idea, StumbleUpon, had been around for a while and is also more advanced.

StumbleUpon also creates conversation around a website although not in a wiki manner.

After installing the StumbleUpon extension, users can annotate or leave comment corresponding the the page they are looking at.

If you have StumbleUpon installed, you can share 59ideas.com by clicking on thumbsup .

This will lead you to this page (screenshot right) where you can leave comment.

But that is not all. StumbleUpon build upon the social aspect of surfing. By linking sites and people together, you can meet people that go to the same site or explore sites visted by people of similar interest.

Now I am thinking, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon, each has features that I like. Wouldn’t it be cool if there is a tool to integrate them.

Riya – face recognition photo search

Published on 22 March, 2006 in beta, idea sites, ideas, startup and web 2.0. 0 Comments

This is a good week to release beta. Last night I receive the invite to Riya. I downloaded the Riya Uploader but I do not have that many people photo to upload.

I take mainly scenery photos. The few people photo I have I do not want to upload for privacy reason.

The idea behind Riya is really cool, Check out the Tour. This is one of those Web 2.0 ideas that actually has serious technology content.

What I mean by technology content is that there is some technology not within easy reach of scripting wizards.

This is not to say idea that social bookmarking, photo sharing, online calendar are inferior. It does mean that however that there will not be many Riya look alike as compared to, say, Digg look alike.