Billions of Faces on one Page

Billions of Faces on one Page - See where your Face roll down in the history of Social Media Giant Facebook.

"Creative Technologist" Natalia Rojas created an app mapping the profiles of Facebook's 1,267,191,915 (and counting) users - and you can see where you come in the timeline

Called the Faces of Facebook, at first glance the page looks like a static television screen - but is actually millions of profile pictures.

Arranged in numbers, from top left to bottom right, the image shows you who joined Facebook first - and you can see where you come in the timeline. (Kidsfreesouls Editor ilaxi patel stand 46, 375,193 user). When you click on Facebook user number one, you - of course - see founder Mark Zuckerberg's image, along with co-founders Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz.

By clicking the location symbol and putting in your Facebook details, you can pinpoint your place in the colourful mess, as well as the spots of all your Facebook friends.

Rojas writes, "There we are, all mixed up: large families, women wearing burkas, many Leo Messis, people supporting same-sex marriages or r4bia, chihuahuas, Indian Gods, tourists pushing the leaning Tower of Pisa, selfies, newborns, Ferraris."

"We are not breaking any of Facebook privacy rules because we don't store anyone's private information, pictures or names," Rojas wrote on the site.

It is quite a trip to find you and your friends, who's who and is a testament to the huge global distribution that Mark Zuckerberg’s social network enjoys today. A unique web based app and sure, this one will curiously make you glimpse at Facebook Smiley gallery!

* All contents on www.kidsfreesouls.com by Ilaxi Patel, Editor - Ilaxi has been writing her Tech column previously on her blog : http://kidsfstech.blogspot.in/ and all her new posts can now be read here and on www.kidsfreesouls.com 

I am an Author - Google Authorship & Google Author Rank

Some months ago, I explored my Webmaster Tools at Google. Amazingly, I came across Google Authorship and Author Rank. Google is piloting the display of author information in search results to help users discover great content. Check out these sample queries for my Search Results and there, you find this with your queries :

SEARCH GOOGLE : KIDSFREESOULS 

How does this Happen - I wondered and got me into the Search with my pic and Google + profile appearing with my pic. Google do not guarantee to show the Author Information in Google web Search or Google News results - However, if you are an Author with a Book - Content on a website, there you go with options :

Option 1: Link your content to your Google+ profile using a verified email address.

Option 2: Set up authorship by linking your content to your Google+ profile

What I basically did was adding a piece of code linking my content to my Google profile is a two-step process. First, you add a link from your website or page to your Google profile. Second, you update your Google profile by adding a link back to your site. As an Author of Guardian of Angels, I placed the code to my 'Real Author' Page on my site Kidsfreesouls.com . Though, the easiest and most reliable way to enable authorship information in Google search results is to provide a verified email address on the same domain as your content. If you don't have an email address on the same domain, however, you can associate your content with your Google+ profile by Google Authorship steps with the codes.


But first, remember, you need to have a Google + Profile and follow + add more people you know and of interest. Just build an awesome network on Google + . Let it Happen - Just Add people you like, make posts, be social, interact, plus or share posts - Let the G+ social media be your platform for passion, professional, philosophical, political, knowledge sharing or anything that's good and interesting. Make circles and add people. Search by "hashtags", "shared circles" "profiles" "pages" and add them into relevant circles. There are so many ways you can make Google+ your own and build your personalized network. Make posts and tag specific circles. Share the circles and keep rolling on G+ . Btw, here is an interesting Google + Tips that might be useful if you are using G+.

However, time restraints is much and so, be careful to set your timings or else you would end up spending 4 hours or more G+ ing  and even Hanging Out - Google + isn't Facebook and means Business, means Collaboration and Interaction. So, there you go - Use your EQ and IQ - the third SQ to be sane and safe and the fourth - RQ to maintain the Relationship Quotient with your Readers esp. for Authors. (unlike the LinkedIn Author Group which require flagging off messages! )

Also know the Social media tips and tricks Google + Tips, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn use with purpose and follow Author Rank - be regular, be consistent, be genuine and be original.

 For those who wish to go in detail, go ahead and click for Google Authorship. Also, here's an  official PPT used by Mr. Mitesh Sanghvi (Twitter handle: @MrMiteshSanghvi) of IMC Group during his session on "Google Authorship and Google AuthorRank" at WordCamp Mumbai 2012 #WCmum on Twitter.

- Meet me as an Author at Google + 

- Meet me as an Author at Facebook

- Meet me as an Author at Twitter

- Meet me as an Author at Amazon | Google Books | all web Book stores on Internet 

- ilaxi patel

Editor - www.kidsfreesouls.com

Author of Guardian of Angels

Facebook Infographics - Amazing!

It's a long time to get me back blogging on my explorations on Tech. Not that I had been completely out of this field but more deeper learning and being a geek - Technology and learning is an endless process and it often takes one further to mastering and understanding. Social networking, Cloud computing, website platforms and following all the Google and Yahoo and Bing - the endless Search. The tricks and tips of G+, the panda and penguin features - makes you learn and grow richer each day. Wide learning tech, following journalism, politics and kids ! And, connected - connecting Authors at LinkedIn. 

Well, the Mashable stories inspire me to be back writing tech again. The recent craze of mine has been the Twitter - my restored account. Most of my tweets lately has been for #inthemixindia or the EDM - the House, Trance and all the music I love on earth. This is all in-between the busy time working at Kidsfreesouls remaking the site or offline engaged socially.

 Indeed, blogging is getting dimmer with more tweets, facebook updates and G+ with whole world of Soundcloud, mixcloud, EDM, beatport, etc. However, the tweet on Facebook Infographics caught my attention to blog in here. With the Facebook Ad campaign, FB announced last few days ago that it has hit billion active accounts. Social networking at FB is woven into the fabric of our lives! The infographic is amazing with Top 5 Countries as:

1. USA
2. Brazil
3. India
4. Indonesia
5. Mexico

44% of Internet users are Facebook Users. 600 Million Mobile users and some like me use Mobile as well as all my computers!  140.3 Billion friends connected and 219 Billion photos uploaded !!

Now, isn't this a revolution? Staggering Fact. And, average user age is 22 to which I very much doubt coz I know a lot of teenagers below 18 connected to FB for longer time.

Here's the Infographic image from Facebook Newsroom and post on Mashable as well as on Jeff Bullas site which say a lot more.

- ilaxi patel
Editor, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Author of Guardian of Angels

Go for Google Global Market Finder (SMBs)

Random posts on this blog see a long gap of a post as I sneak in today to blog with a new resolution to again switch back Tech blogging, hopefully!

The focus is on current Launch of Google India's 'Google global market Finder - a free online tool for advertisers to find new markets overseas. Available as a part of Google Ads, the new tool is designed to help Indian businesses expand their business and reach out to customers in the international markets. Google is all set to help Indian small and medium sized businesses (SME)to compete at a global stage.

Google had been offering Free Adwords Coupons lately worth Rs.1500 to 2000/- to business and though I ignored to make use of this, I did understand the value of Adwords which prove to be very effective in promotion of business. Google's SMB (Small and medium Business/Entrepreneur) customer base has more than trippled with a 100% year on year growth in the sector," said Sridhar Seshadri, Head, Google India's online sales. A typical SMB client spends anywhere between Rs 10,000-35,000 on Google adwords,it is learnt and the Company picks up good business through the various Google's call centers which help SMBs understand how adwords functions and how they can make use of it.

Further to this, the Global Market Finder helps to identify new markets based on keyword searches originating from a region. Market Finder translates keywords into any one of 56 languages used in the selected region. It then ranks each location by opportunity based on factors like local search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword.

Go explore but choose the right keywords. Google reserve the right to disapprove any keywords you add. You are responsible for the keywords you select. (check out Adwords rules-terms and conditions)

Also Research new markets with Market Intelligence tools and after you’ve done your homework on your new customers, localize your website, keywords, and ads with Google’s translation tools.

- ilaxi patel
Editor, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Official Blogger and VA to M J Akbar
www.mjakbar.org

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

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

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

http://www.mjakbar.org/

Editor, http://www.kidsfreesouls.com/

Newspaper for Kids

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

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

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:-)

Google's 11th Birthday! Celebrate when you want to eat the cake!

Google celebrated it's 10th Birthday last year and here's its Project10100 'May Those who Help the Most Win', with Ideas to change the world by helping many people as possible. The response was overwhelming as Google quotes on it's Project10100 site as more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 Ideas. These ideas range from general Investment suggestions to specific implementation proposals. You can take a note of the 16 Big Ideas that inspires and you can Vote for it. Voting ends on October 8, 2009.

Ideas to Vote:

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

Now, all Ideas are innovative and draws our attention. Don't you think so? Best Ideas still can fit in the category. However, important is How long will the Idea's impact last and how many people would this idea affect? Urgency of the need creates an awareness and if these Ideas have implementation faster, it can let the results be seen.

Google is committing $10 million to implement these projects, and their goal is to help as many people as possible. You can be a part of the Project10tothe100 and join the task. Watch the video or just visit their site and Vote for the Best Idea.

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." says Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Here is on google info and G Docs I blogged earlier and on its 10th Birthday last year.

However, its time for celebration for me as we celebrate MJ Blog Birthday just around Google's Birthday completing 5 years of web presence. A continuous, endless, thoughtful writing by M J and presenting the Blog on the web.

- ilaxi

Suspend Twitter - Mosey along to Friendfeed.com

Follow Friendfeed:
Are you a fan of 140 character Twitter and addicted posting from any place, any where, any time? Beware!!! You are soon going to be insane or maybe your account will be 'Mosey along - nothing to see here' - Just Suspended for no reason of yours!

Recently, the news around at Mashable has more than 250+ Comment posts of Twitter users whose account is Suspended. It seems 4chan maybe behind this attack on Twitter says Cnet. Twitter is going to have a hard time controlling spammers, pranksters and hackers whose number will inevitably increase with the rise of Twitter’s popularity. Moreover, Twitter lacks in Security and have no control over its own program and it uses Google API !

The following is an update from Twitter Blog on 5th July 2009:

Restoring accidentally suspended accounts

"We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.
One additional note: some the accounts suspended were using the third-party site Tweetlater. However, Tweetlater is not to blame for these suspensions nor is it in violation of our Terms."

Well, I did spot some problems of Twitter Phishing in January as some Hi Profile accounts were hacked. Among the many were New York Times and Brittany Spears and of coz, mine too:-) Again, in May end, the phishing strikes and this time, Kidsfreesouls account goes Suspended due to reasons best known to Twitter. More users are being Suspended with Mosey along stranding the users. The Twitter Customer Support is very active for a reply to help to users and diverts to 'Terms and conditions' and other things with no satisfactory answer. Repeat tickets are soon tagged as 'Closed' or 'Solved' with a curt reply 'Thanks for your feature request' and you can tweet @twitter - How? remains to be seen as you cannot send @twitter when your account opens but is 'Dead.'!!!

Many users have diverted to Friendfeed and truly welcoming, it open up doors with much more better Tweeting + added features to stay tuned. I had earlier wrote on Twitter Phishing and would recommend Twitter users to be Cautious - Follow Mashable for more inputs on this and other related tech information. Twitter seems to be desperately trying to rectify errors on their side and provide lame assistance to users - However, there is a "Hole in the Twitter" and it remains to be seen how Twitter can safeguard its own as well users security.

You may follow me on Friendfeed now or connect FACEBOOK by visiting my site Kidsfreesouls and for mjakbar.org - you may stop following Twitter as we have suspended Twitter use. Instead, follow Covert Facebook Group.

- ilaxi

Your Vote Counts! Doodles by Kids

Google Doodle 4 Google contest in the U.S. Google doodles are the special "dressed-up" logos that Google run on their homepage for holidays and other events, and Doodle 4 Google is an opportunity for one child to have his/her artwork displayed on their homepage as a doodle for hundreds of millions of people to see. This year's theme "What I Wish for the World," and tap into not only children's creativity but also what they want their future to look like.

You can help Google to select National Finalist from 40 regional winners. Your Vote Counts! Just click to the grades and Vote for the Best. Click to the Doodles and amazing Ideas from children. World Peace, Spread Literacy, Save Energy, Be Friendly nations, Stop War, Recycle the future, healthy world, etc are the messages through Doodles. You can even view the State Finalists. Approx 400 Doodles were chosen.

It is unfortunate that children in India cannot . Yet I guess, this will be an inspiration and let our Kids Wish for a Better World - Get them to write or paint and pin up in your School/home/club paste boards. Even you can send to Kidsfreesouls to add to Paste Board section.

Btw, here is Chief Google Doodler Dennis Hwang drawing away the Doodles...It's fun to watch! Also here's last year's Awards for Doodles.

- ilaxi

Google Color filter to Image Search

Google adds Color Filter to the Image Search recently. You can find the changes here on 'Google Images' - All content, drop down box. This means, now you have options to view the images in various colors - Red, orange, teal..and more. Find Image search of kidsfreesouls here.

Under advanced options, Google Image Search already has quite a number of interesting options, including filters for image content type, size, and format.

Several search engines seems to be coming up and I hear, the latest one is Webscaler, Allinone Search Engine. It is connected to more than 1800 search engines in 200 countries and eventually to built a metasearch engine that would integrate all the one million small search engines into a single system which provide instant answers. Webscaler distinguish different from metasearch engines as they focus on smaller search engines as opposed to google, msn or yahoo.

Well, the biggest challenge on web is to stay tuned to the search - and finally, here is Kosmix - you might find it interesting!

- ilaxi

Twouble with Twitters

An Interesting Video! How much do you Twitter? How much you hang on Facebook? My Space, Orkut?

Set up your Time Management before it's Addiction or tooo Late! Follow http://tinyurl.com/5roann on Twitter and stay tuned here http://tinyurl.com/2z6env - Enjoy Life! Keep the Faith.

- ilaxi

Top Blogs 2009

Since quite years, I am quite familiar with many Top Blogs and been randomly visiting some of them while space made way inbetween my workload. Blogs related to Tech are on my top list, followed by Politics and related to my Blog posts.

Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish is a lovely meal and as Time says, can be appointed as 'Country's Blogger in Chief.' The Daily Dish sub head says, 'No Party, no clique'. Andrew's post on 'Why Blog' pose as an Inspiration to many a souls like me and nevertheless, I agree to what he says. "We blog as news reaches us, as facts emerge." For Bloggers, deadline is always now - spontaneous and just not like the Reporters or the Novelist who can pick time and wait for final selection. Blogging is more a free form, you even end up writing personal or share, speak loud your ideas and opinions - no barriers but dedicated daily journal posts and comitted to self. Read the post and maybe you are inspired to Blog if you're not doing so. A blogger has no limits - you Blog or enjoy real life - no hassles.

The Huffington Post , Mashable , Official Google Blog, TechCrunch, Daily Kos: State of the Nation, Gawker are my random visited Blogs but I am surprize I cannot find ProBlogger and I would add this to Best Blog on the web too! Do let me know what you read and like in the comments and maybe, I can find more resources to list here.

Here are 25 Best Blogs 2009 as per the Time Magazine:

Talking Points Memo
The Huffington Post
Lifehacker
Metafilter
The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan
Freakonomics
BoingBoing
Got2BeGreen
Zen Habits
The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman
Crooks and Liars
Generación Y
Mashable
Slashfood
Official Google Blog
synthesis
bleat
/Film
Seth Godin's Blog
Deadspin: Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion
Dooce
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
Said the Gramophone
Detention Slip
Bad Astronomy

You can find the 2008 Web Log Awards here. The Best Asian Blogs list Indiauncut and there's more over here.

Follow the winners and find your interests, learning curve and above all, keep informed. Btw, here's my Ed Blog and other blogs. Maybe, you'd like to follow them. Enjoy.

- ilaxi

Twitter Phishing strikes!!!

A big phishing attack hit Twitter users worldwide, forcing the micro-blogging service to advise its users to change their passwords. Phishers are now targeting the microblogging service Twitter to promote a widespread phishing campaign tricking celebrities and other users into submitting their personal information for identity theft and other illegal activities.

On 3rd Jan, it was noticed that many users got direct messages to follow a link but for me, it was a strange way to know Twitter phishing as I noticed the backgrounds of my site changed to Twitter profile background. On finding the source, it read:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_background_images/3080822/tweetila.jpg
As I checked on this, it is a surprize as to how my Twitter image reached Amazon Developer site! I changed my Twitter bg and my site bg with twitter bg was gone!

http://s3.amazonaws.com/

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/

On following Chris Pirillo's Tweet, I realised Twitter Phishing. Could this be a marketing gimmick of Amazon Simple storage service as found in my twitter image url? Or is Amazon (AWS) lack in security? How do they have the Twitter production RSS jpgs of twitter profiles?

All questions are confusing! Maybe the Blogger and Wordpress blogs have good security which is otherwise not in the case of Websites hosted by hosts! in the last 3 days, it is learnt, 33 high profile Twitter users had their accounts hacked. These accounts included President Elect Barack Obama, Rick Sanchez, Britney Spears and other high profile/celebrity Twitter users. And one is Mine! Maybe, these hi profile user list feature in list of http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/

Read more in Google News on Kidsfreesouls and even follow my twitter.

Twitter has advised all users to change passwords but here's a tip from me, Change your backgrounds too!!!

- ilaxi

Friend Sense - Friend Connect

I was exploring the Developer's Applications and came across Connect Facebook. However, much easier made me pick up Friend Connect as Googlers call in 'Friend Sense' and truly, it is! Google's new product launched recently, is the new social product with it's goal to facilitate an open social web.

All you do is:
Sign in
Interact with others by making friends,
sharing media,
posting comments,
playing games,
more...Invite other friends

You can now Join Kidsfreesouls and Be Social! Join my mission to spread the message of Love, faith, peace and unity among Human beings.

You can watch the video on You Tube here.




Websites that use Friend Connect will have a new option : add Adsense-like advertising within the Friend Connect and Open Social widgets that they’ve added to their websites. Publishers will get a percentage of the revenue generated from the advertising. The users have the profile Information, Friends Information and Activities. You can read more on this post here too on Tech Crunch.

Unlike Facebook Connect, best part is No programming codes for Google's Friend Connect! Just a few snippets of code into the site and there it goes live. But, of course, surfers need to be Open Social and Join. Especially website users and website visitors - coz a lot goes behind joining Google's Friend Connect - Join, experience and Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Google Zeitgeist - The toppers List

Just watched the NDTV show with Mr. Vinay Goel, the Head of Products, Google answering the questions. As I gather, Google has announced its India Zeitgeist, a look at 2008 through the collective eyes of the Indian users on the web.

The 2008 year-end India Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on searches conducted by users in India.

Mahatama Gandhi is still the number one politician followed by Raj Thakeray , Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi , Rahul Gandhi , Abdul Kalam , Manmohan Singh and Mayawati. It is a surprise, not a single BJP leader’s name figures among top ten political celebrities during 2008. Moreover, Indians have searched more for Sarah Palin and Barrack Obama rathar than any other Indian politician.

Katrina Kaif is the most searched Bollywood celebrity during 2008 followed by Aishwarya Rai , Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapur, Deepika Padukone ,Shahrukh Khan ,Mallika Sherawat and Genelia D’souza.

Vinay Goel hopes to see Amir Khan among the Khans in the year 2009.

The Internet seems to be the one stop shop for all personal searches like love-beauty-money and romance. Among top 10 popular ‘how to do stuff’ queries are about :

How to lose weight reduction

How to kiss

How to earn money

How to get pregnant

How to learn English
How to gain weight
How to play guitar
How to create a website
How to impress a girl
how to tie a tie.

In sports, Sania Mirza by get first position with Sachin Tendulkar as second , Cristiano Ronaldo third, John Cena fourth, M.S.Dhoni fifth , David Beckham sixth and so on.

Most Popular searches have remained:

1. orkut

2. gmail
3. yahoo

4. google
5. youtube

6. yahoomail
7. indian railways
8. rediff
9. cricket
10. katrina kaif

Fastest rising is You Tube, orkut, Katrina Kaif, cricket, irctc, facebook, genelia d'souza, etc. Mobile optimized websites like Waptrick and mobile games are becoming very popular too.
Facebook login is fastes rising to No.3 among the social networking sites in global list.

In the social networking list categories comes:

1.facebook
2.myspace
3.hi5
4.orkut
5.linkedin
6.nasza klasa

7.netlog
8.mixi
9.meetup
10.odnoklassniki

And on Top of mind comes 'Economy' :

financial crisis

depression
bailout
mortgage crisis
wall street
oil stock market
subprime
credit crisis
housing crisis

You can find more in the Google Zeitgeist 2008 website for detailed list.

So much to go by all these years but who knows what Google show search results for 2009. Could it be Terrorism, war? or Peace! whatever..whatever...

- ilaxi

Search Google 2001 & G Trends

Google Trends on October 1, 2008 had the highest word 'Google 2001' - No wonder, to mark the 10th Birthday, most of you must have visited Google's Oldest available Index to take a look back to 2001 Search of almost 1,326,920,000 web pages.

If you search 'Freesouls', you will end up find my old pages of yester years lying still in the Archive! Search in for any keyword you want to take a look back to Google in 2001. It's amazing to find Facebook with login area and My Space, Twitter have no trace at all!

Btw, want to know what's Hot Trends in Google Searches? Take a look here to peek-a-boo on today's Hot Trend search . Though, I am not much impressed with the Traffic data measuring of Google and most of the sites are not seen as websites with low volume are threshold! Especially, what so interesting is that Google's own website is not spotted in their Trends Website search!

- ilaxi