Friday, December 31, 2010

GMMXLE

Wondering what is GMMXIE? The new Google Doodle today is puzzling and I thought is it a code for something. Did it mean to convey hidden message? Soon, I thought over and ugh, oh - realized it's Roman Characters MMXI - G and e are part of Google logo! MMXIE is 2011 and if you carefully look in details, find the message of sparkling wishes for 2011. Google often has unique way of celebrating with Google doodles and here, we find hope and joy as the year bids farewell and and the new year bell chimes in to ring in the new.

The United Nations has designated 2011 (MMXI) the International Year of Forests and International Year of Chemistry.

Wishing all Happy New Year 2011. May you google your way to spread Happiness and encourage Reading - all through the year, stay tuned.

- ilaxi

Friday, November 12, 2010

Google Instant Previews

Google recently launched Instant Previews and it sure is a way to guide you to see the web page as is, where is and how it is! You don't have to leave the Search results without a preview which gives a glimpse into spot on pages in search results that are most promising pages amongst the listed. All depending on the Key words and where the web page is positioned, it is the top 1-10 results that help viewers click to read the best.

Needless to say, M J Akbar's Blog preview in Google Search reflects the results with various key words. The new feature of Google helps people to save their time in searching process and saves for pogo sticking - usually clicking to site and coming back to search if unsatisfied. With the Google preview, the search results reflect with a small magnifying glass which appear next to each listing. Clicking on this magifying glass image, a preview of the page that is listed will appear to the right side of the search results. It makes easier to move down the arrow key through all search listings and it lets u look inside! As you select web listing, it will be highlighted with a blue background. The preview will change to show the highlited page. Within the images, relevant text to your search highlighted through 'call outs' that make it easy to read. Pages can have more than one call out and it might also have what Google calls 'tear' where a page appear as torn to show the overall context of the page but also show parts relevant to the search.
The images preview cover up Google's ads when they appear. This means, ads too get instant previews feature in the future. I think, this is a neat and a cool feature that helps save time and lets people browse in through the search results - at a glance look at web pages at Google search. Check this out and be there at M J Akbar's Blog through the Google search link. Also find your way to the newly launched The Sunday Guardian Website and of coz, my very own kids newspaper - Kidsfreesouls.com - Stay tuned!
- ilaxi

Monday, September 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Celebration is on....

Google’s 12th birthday on 27th September - M J Blog Birthday 28th september
Ever comes 27th September and it's Birthday celebrations. Google Celebrated it's 10th Birthday with Project10100 'May Those who Help the Most Win' - with Ideas to change the world by helping many people as possible. Google committed $10 million to implement these projects, and their goal is to help as many people as possible. I do not know what happened to the Project Ideas but yes, here's a glimpse into many Ideas to Vote that time:

Ideas put up for Voting earlier:

Provide quality education to African students
Make government more transparent
Help social entrepreneurs drive change
Make educational content available online for free
Drive innovation in public transport
Create more efficient landmine removal programs
Build real-time, user-reported news service
Create real-world issue reporting system
Enhance science and engineering education
Create genocide monitoring and alert system
Promote health monitoring and data analysis
Collect and organize the world's urban data
Build better banking tools for everyone
Encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists
Work toward socially conscious tax policies

It’s Google’s 12th birthday on 27th September and time for celebrations again. Google’s regular logo has been replaced by an image of a cake, created by the American painter Wayne Thiebaud. This logo is the new brand Google Doodle in the Google Logos which are newsworthy in their own right after the technology firm started using the customised versions of its logo to mark what it considered significant occasions.

Happy Birthday Google - 27th September is a memory. Google opened its doors in September 1998. "The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake." said Larry Page and Sergey Brin earlier. However, the cake logo confirms that Indeed, the Birthday date is fixed for 27th September now and confirmed for once and for all.

Well, its time for celebration for me too as we celebrate MJ Blog Birthday , 28th September (started in 2004) just around Google's Birthday completing 6 years of web presence. An endless journey of Blogging on Web by M J Akbar and an endless journey of presenting the blog on the web.

- ilaxi patel
Official Blogger and VA to M J Akbar
Newspaper for Kids

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

New Twitter, my new beginning!

Twitter getting Bigger and Better! New Twitter and my New Beginning!

When I first started my Tweets, I was totally confused and wondered, "Why do I have to tell the world what I am doing?" Than came the Facebook with the Status Updates and even My Space. I felt better reading tweets and status of people and realized a wonderful world of staying connected and sharing. In turn, marketing and promoting own work and websites.

A time phase with the Twitter Phishing attacks and my exploring mind found the loopholes in the system on which, I blogged to get answers to my suspicion. However, the result was a Suspended Account and I lost interest in Twitter world with time restraints and unwillingness to opt for new account. I did not want to go for a new account like @ThisIsFisher did and even wrote a song as Twitter' Bots decided to suspent his account for doing nothing wrong. (Listen to the song)



Finally, after a long one year wait, my Twitter account is re-activated and back to normal. Thanks to a good friend @ Netra who encouraged me to be back on Twitter! Only the thing is that a shift in use, make me forget to tweet live and the fear of the phishing would not let me update through my iphone. Random tweets can now be found but I am sure, you will like to stay tuned to my world if you find my tweets interesting.

Well, back to Twitter - I find that Twitter is now getting More Bigger and More Better - all for Good. Life does not fit in 140 character. Each tweet is a handful of information or a promotion - even embedded media with the photos, videos directly to Twitter.

The new Design is clean and neat. A scroll with no click to more to view further tweets. @ mentions, retweets, searches and lists are just above the timeline giving a single streamlined view on the left of the screen. On right, all good features that draw our attention whom we followed and who follows us, plus the favorites and the trending topics.

Depending on the tweets, we discover related contents. The details pane show additional information as to the subject and who is the author. @ replies, other tweets of the same user is visible and from where the tweet was sent.

Partnership with You Tube, Flickr, TwitPIc, Vimeo, UStream, etc. makes it so convenient to share the videos and photos directly to Twitter. Twitter has also recently released ipad apps.

What's more and experience live while you Tweet. Watch an interesting video on the new design below:

Video by: @briggletweets, @jennadawn, @trammell & @jbuckhouse



Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced that Twitter.com is already most popular microblogging service, a 78% of unique users. More impressions to advertisers and Twitter is the Choice of many as it keeps people more engaged and hooked.

Well, I am back and live - Tweeting and you can :

Join me @ kidsfreesouls and @ The Sunday Guardian

- ilaxi

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Mashable Awards - Best of the Best on Web

I am a great big fan of Mashable and a quick glance of the posts keeps one updated in Technology and what's going on in social and digital media, technology and web culture. It provides Breaking Web News and for journalists like me, it's a quick read that keeps informed and aware of Tech world. Popular among Bloggers, Facebook and Twitter users and Tech enthusiastics, the site was founded way back in 2005 by Founder Pete Cashmore.

The 4th Mashable Annual Awards are announced (formerly known as Open Web Awards) and the Award website launch and nominations period will officially begin on September 27, 2010 to November 29, 2010. Final 5 voting will be from December 1 - December 15, 2010. The Awards are in partnership with Cirque du Soleil and celebrations will be held at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas. Tickets can be purchased here.

The Current Categories for Nominations are:
1. Best New Gadget
2. Best Mobile Device
3. Best Music Discovery Service
4. Best Location-Based Service
5. Best Web Video
6. Must Follow
7. Most Creative Social Media Campaign
8. Best Social Media Management Tool
9. Must-Follow Brand
10. Best Use of an API
11. Best Website User Experience
12. Best Mobile User Experience
13. Most Innovative Mobile App
14. Best Mobile Platform
15. Best Mobile Game
16. Most Creative Social Media for Social Good Campaign
17. Most Promising New Company
18. Best Online Game

You can help shape the categories by adding more and Stay tuned to Mashable if you want to get Nominated and even if not, stay tuned to find the Best of the Best on the Web in various categories.
- ilaxi

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Wikileaks

WikiLeaks and the site dominated the news cycle with over 92,000 Military documents. The Pentagon demanded in the first week of August that WikiLeaks “do the right thing” and remove from its Web site tens of thousands of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan, and return to the military thousands of others that it had not yet made public.

Wikileaks disclosure of a six-year archive of thousands of documents gave the Taliban and other militant groups insights into American military tactics and techniques, showed how the United States protects its troops in war zones and revealed the names of Afghan informants and how the military cultivates them.

Frank Rich of New York Times summed up the sentiment of many of his colleagues saying “They are historical documents describing events largely predating the current administration,” Rich wrote. “They contain no news. They will not change the course of the war.”

I think,the latest leak from WikiLeaks signals a seminal change for investigative journalism as even talked about at Mashable.

However, The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiegel, after being given early access by WikiLeaks, published excerpts but excluded those that identified individuals or compromised operations. The Times also agreed to forward a request by the administration urging WikiLeaks not to post online any documents that would put informants in jeopardy.

Wikileaks allows people to anonymously post documents on the web, saying its aim is to promote transparency. I wonder, could this be authentic and how far could this be true and justified.

As of now, Human rights groups have urged WikiLeaks to redact names of Afghans helping American forces from thousands of leaked US military documents, leading to a charged retort from the website's founder, says AFP via Wall Street Journal.

911 pager messages and Sarah Palin email links with more about the Reuters journalist were among the many leaks that went unnoticed.

Technology and the media with websites like Wikileaks are reflections of Internet's freedom of Speech and information. Do post in your views.
- ilaxi
The Tech column restarts after a long gap - No excuses there:-)