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Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Wow! Google Analytics

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.

Google Analytics

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

Google Finance betaGoogle 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:

Well, it’s here now!

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

links for Mar 20-26

Thanks to new guys at Best Blog on WordPress, I’m now updating on weekend. Giving me the more time needed to surf using proxy.

Various surfing this week:

  • Looking for PHP based wiki for an upcoming project.
  • Looking at motorcycle sites
  • Checking out sites for Best Blog on WordPress
  • Collecting interesting sites along the way

I decided to consolidate all the del.icio.us link posts weekly as they getting more than my own post and look real ugly.

Continue reading ‘links for Mar 20-26′

Stumble and Annotate Along

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.

Wikalong screenshot - click to enlargeFor 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.
StumbleUponAnnotation 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.

StumbleUpon screenshotIf 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.

My Solar Charging Ideas

I was so intrigued by the solar vest idea that I went further to look at the viability of some ideas based on this. It is relatively easy in China to get prototype done up by some factories.

Since I take my notebook around, I had the idea of solar charging for notebook.
The solar cell could go onto the notbook case ot even on the cover itself.

I did a quick mock up with my HP nc4000 and my ZeroShock cover.

Solar chargin HP nc4000 Solar charging Zero Shock notebook cover


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