Reuters has invested $7m (£3.7m) in an internet startup, aiming to push the world of blogging further into the mainstream. Texas dotcom firm Pluck brings together almost 3,000 highly rated blogs and syndicates them to news media organisations for use on their websites. The service covers subjects such as politics, sports, technology and travel, and has negotiated deals with news groups including the Washington Post and Guardian Unlimited. As part of the agreement, Reuters will syndicate third-party blog content alongside its news and information.

Also, several major newspapers, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express-News and the Austin American-Statesman who began syndicating and displaying high-quality blog content from the BlogBurst syndication network on their web sites. BlogBurst, the industry's first blog syndication service linking new and traditional media with a blog-powered newswire service, now includes many activated and available blog sources. Pluck helps its customers leverage the new open content model that has emerged of Web 2.0 technology.

More than 15 million unique visitors per month turn to live BlogBurst sites SFGate.com, Statesman.com, Chron.com and MySanAntonio.com for the latest news, entertainment and commercial information. With the addition of syndicated blog content from BlogBurst, visitors to these sites can enjoy an expanded perspective on a variety of topics. Bloggers are rewarded with increased exposure and reader traffic through attribution and links back to their blogs.

Following on the foot-steps goes MSN India with it's recent features of MSN Contribute. Accepting manually, the articles submitted by Contribute readers are checked and posted on their main page with viewers who can read, rate and even labelled 'Editor's Choice'. So, if you think you can pen your thoughts, express your views, get your thoughts published - contribute on web - Blogburst or msn contribute or Goarticles - Choice is entirely yours!

- ilaxi

Saturday, (27th Jan) thousands of Americans will march on Washington DC to demand peace and justice in Iraq and the Middle East. The global Avaaz.org is working to raise a worldwide voice of solidarity through an international virtual march. Avaaz supporters in Washington have offered to carry real banners and placards at the US demonstration,showing how many internet marchers from all round the world are joining in.

Moveon will carry the flag of each country that generates more than 500 internet marchers.Avaaz has mobilized over 45,000 people from over 100 countries to join the call to oppose Bush's military escalation and demand a real plan to end this war.Visit here to support Moveon-Avaaz

- ilaxi

The popular hangout on web might be Orkut for Indians but My Space is fast pacing up with multiplied websites providing My space goodies like layouts, profile pimps, comment codes, etc. To avoid the mistakes Orkut did, My Space announced recently that it will develop technologies to help block convicted sex offenders by partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. They will build a database that will contain the names and physical descriptions of convicted sex offenders in US. An automated system will search for matches between the database and My space user profiles. Parents, school administrators and law enforcement authorities have grown worried that teens are at risk on My Space and other social networking sites, which provide tools for sharing photos, creating personal pages and using pimp up profile sites. In October, about 12% were teens on My Space.

Well, this reminds me to mention the Dinosaur Band Rockosaurus Rex, Aliens come down to Earth with a profile at My space. They are the Rock Band Group who entertain children & adults too, with their new CD 'Big Bang' Rock Rhymes for Kids. You may read my review of this CD here on my site and get into the groove with kids dancing n romping on kiddie rock rhymes. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Books go live at Google Books
 
As we all know Google had encountered the Copyright issue earlier but now the alternate Google Book Search program offers Publishers and Authors new features for online Book experience. Google has designed a new browsing interface and you can simply scroll through the pages, or, for full view books, view them in two-page mode and flip through just like a book. You can zoom in, switch to full screen, and jump directly to the chapters that interest you. If the book is part of the public domain, you can comfortably read it on screen or download it if you prefer. For an in-copyright book, just follow the links to buy it or to find it in a library.

For this, Google Book Search now features links to WorldCat's free Web service. The Google service, which lets you search the full text of books provided by participating libraries and publishers, includes "Find this book in a library" links that lead to the WorldCat Web record for an item. There you can enter a geographic identifier such as postal code and receive a list of nearby libraries that hold the item.

The "Find this book in a library" link to WorldCat typically appears in the right-hand column of any Google Book Search "view," beneath descriptive information for a book (title, authors) and "Buy this book" purchase options.

The WorldCat link appears within all four available Google Book views:

>>the Full View offering access to the full content of a digitized title;
>>the Limited Preview that lets you read only several pages of the book;
>>the Snippet View that contextually presents passages of the book which contain your search terms; and
>>the basic record view which does not feature a content preview.

Advanced Book Search also has Library Catalogs option.Google's Advanced Book Search also now allows you to limit a search to "Library Catalogs." Results produced by this limited search contain "Find libraries" links that lead to the WorldCat Web record for each item. (Some search results may also include links to other non-U.S. national catalogs.)

Google Books already has a Library Project in the pipeline and you can view the same here.

Well, I am happy that MJ books are now available for viewers at Google Books and also, my very own Guardian of Angels is soon to go live for view online, partnering google books search program. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

My space is for all the music freaks on the web and you sure apt to make good friends and listen to good music too!

Here is Rick Paul from My Space friends. Rick Paul sings from Lake Forest, California. Rick Paul's songs combine memorable pop/rock and country melodies with mature, often thought provoking, lyrics on life and love. His songs have been recorded by independent artists from the USA, Europe, and Asia.

Rick is about to release his new album EP 'That Time of Year' with all the songs for Christmas. This comes after a successful 'The Lord's Prayer' - Our Father who art in heaven.' Rick has sung a beautiful song 'You get what you want' and you can listen these songs on Rick's my space too. 

My Most fav song of Rick Paul is Help Us Understand.

"Help Us Understand"
(Rick Paul)

A little boy in his bedroom, tears streaming from his eyes
Fell to his knees as he cried
He said, "God, I know you can hear me, and you can do all kinds of things
If I can't have Mommy back, would you give her angel's wings"

Oh, Heavenly Father, please help us understand
Why so many suffer in this world that's in your hands
Though we trust you have your reasons
If this is part of your plan
Oh, please, please, help us understand

A young man from the suburbs called his wife from work that day
Said, "tell everybody I'm okay"
Then he paused, and told her he loved her, and she should hug the kids for him
They never saw his face or heard his voice again

Oh, Heavenly Father, please help us understand
Why so many suffer in this world that's in your hands
Though we trust you have your reasons
If this is part of your plan
Oh, please, please, help us understand

Oh it hurts so much
That it's hard to go on
One moment here
The next, they're just gone

Thousands of crying voices were silenced that dark day
All we could do was watch, and pray
So many who tried to help them would sacrifice their lives
As steel and concrete towers crumbled like ice

Oh, Heavenly Father, please help us understand
Why so many suffer in this world that's in your hands
Though we trust you have your reasons
If this is part of your plan
Oh, please, please, help us understand
Oh, please, please help us understand

- ilaxi
(My space on My space!)

The recent news around is Google Inc plans to start selling advertising space in 50 top newspapers, expanding the Internet search efforts to provide services off the web and making it easier for companies advertising online to also show off their products in print.

A group of more than 100 Google Advertisers will be able to place bids for space in The New York Times, Gannett, Tribune and Washington Post during a three month test period according to reports on my desk.

Now, I feel this system will indeed increase sales as online journalism is in thing today and competition from online advertising also on a rise. Also google will gain more customers during its pursuit of print, radio and television marketing. Advertisers will have better opportunities to pick specific newspapers and specific sections for their ads. Buisnesses would place bids on ad size, sections and days a newspaper is offering and the publication can view the bids and make selections. The newspaper reserves the right to choose to accept as many bids as their reach.
Yeah, the newspapers would have a wider chance to tap in a group of advertisers and for sure, the print is going to stay even with the online Journalism and blogging journalism is on rise. It only remains to be seen how the trial period goes so that google can start this project by next year.

Any views on this?

- ilaxi

King of Search & King of Video gets together last month. Google Acquires You Tube. View the message of the You Tube Founders Chad & Steve. They spent monthly cost of $1 million with over 23 million users. The 20 month old company fetches $1.25 billion in the google takeover. Google getting mightier on the web.

- ilaxi

Ever seen the Coca-cola ad on You Tube? An amusing Aamir Khan. Recently, Google enters into Entertainment & Recreation with You Tube takeover. Coke, Pepsi, Nike, so on - brands spend money where eyeballs are rolling. There is more money in branding than cost per click and Google adwords apt to find targets here. The best Internet Purchase of the year by google. However, I fear Google's Orkut known as Opium of the Internet masses, is getting into trouble in India with its Hate Groups & Anti social elements. The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court, comprising Justice AP Deshpande and Justice RM Borde, issued notice to Google last week following a public interest litigation initiated by 22-year-old advocate Yugant R Marlapalle-Also an Orkut Member, he objects of a community burning Indian flag. 

Remains to be seen how communities are controlled like this one - not only on Orkut but www itself! Well, I heard, Orkut is being re-designed again! 

- ilaxi

ITVidya.com in collaboration with Sinhgad Technical Education Society has hosted a 2 day Conference on "Technopreneurship : Empowering Budding Entrepreneurs" to be held on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th September 2006 in Pune.

Many want to start their own business but do not have the proper guidance,resources and the know-how to do that and this event is just tailer-made for them. The Target audience is Aspiring Entrepreneurs,New Startup Founders,Engineering Students,MBA students and Working Professionals. Though there is a nominal entrance fee, the two day sessions are planned to provide budding technocrats with a holistic understanding of business dynamics and acceleterate their transition to technopreneurs.

If you are a student and interested to know further about the itvidya projects, ring up Ajay Sanghani on his mobile 098200 20753 or just click to itvidya and join the group of tech - IT knowledge, Networking and Opportunities.

- ilaxi

As google celebrated its 8th Birthday on 27th September, it's been my fav search engine on the web. My affair with Google Search started way back as I explored the web. I almost fell in love with Google and I found it a 'wonder of wonders'. This has ever been my first Internet Crush and since years, my day began with google and ended up google as I updated my websites.

In September 1998, Google Inc. opened its door in Menlo Park, California. The door came with a remote control, as it was attached to the garage of a friend who sublet space to the new corporation's staff of three. The office offered several big advantages and also provided a parking space for the first employee hired by the new company. He was Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology. Google.com was in the Beta version then and answered over 10,000 search queries each day. Their ladder to success was sure as in December 1998, PC Mag named Google as one of its Top 100 Web sites and Search Engines for 1998. By 21st September 1999, the Beta Label of Google Search Engine came off from the site and became Time magazine's Top Ten Best Cybertech list for 1999.

Google got the Webby Award and a People's Voice Award for technical achievement in May 2000 when Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin spoke few words of acceptance 'We Love you Google users. And this turned out today with people saying "We Love You Google". Quality of search results is all that matters with Google. Most comprehensive web search and here's Google come a long way with :
google search, Google mail, Google Earth, Google Moon, Google Maps, Google Tool Bar, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, Google Store, Google Desktop, Google Video, Google Blog Search,Google Talk and more n more!!! Yeah, Google Labs & Google Print and all more....

Today, in 2006, we have the Google Video Player and its the best featuring upcoming on the web. Also a brand new Google video Store. A free pack was also announced at its Birthday and here is the same for download by people residing anywhere.

Thank You Google and yeah, again 'May the good lord god bless Google and the team.

-ilaxi patel
Editor, kidsfreesouls.com

Indian Govt has a lousy idea of Blog censorship that their Instructions landed up the ISPs to block all blogspot blogs!

Post 7/11, the Government decided to block sites and gave a handful of list to ISPs. Out of a misunderstanding of both Technology and Security, ISPs blocked all the Blogger Blogs. CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) of the Telecommunications demanded the block to some sites with no explanations to the drastic action of blocking all blogger sites. As a result, Indian Bloggers on the web with over 42,000 Bloggers on the Google owned blogspot.com suffered from this action. They have already formed "Bloggers Collective Group" and Wiki on Bloggers Against Censorship - a Campaign against Indian Government's apparent notice to various ISPs to Block the various websites and blogs hosted on blogspot.com. The bloggers demand their constitutional right to Freedom of Speech & Expression as Indian Citizens. Bloggers like Peter Griffin, Amit Verma, Dina Mehta, etc. have made all their efforts to help the blogging community to view the blogs and provided helpful hints and support.

A unique script has been provided by Dr. Awab Alvi, a Pakistani founder of 'Dont Block the Blog Campaign' and the Blogger Blogs can be viewed here. All you need to do is, just enter the name of the Blog. eg. kidsfstech, kidsfreesouls, sambhaav - all blogs that are hosted on Google's Blogger (blogspot.com) You will be able to read these Blogs here. A lot Thanks to Dr.Awab Alvi.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has now instructed the ISPs to Block only the websites and blogs specified in the Instructions to them earlier. The order further says that the ISPs operating in India should strictly comply with the order dated 13th July 2006 and provide unhindered access to Internet. They are only supposed to block the limited number of web pages and websites not the entire network of domains hosting some of these blogs. They are also asking the ISPs to clarify why they should not take action against them for blocking harmless sites and causing a lot of troubles for the end user in the country.

Strangely, still Bloggers are unable to access blogs hosted on Google’s Blogger service even now. They need to sort to services like pkblogs.com .

Some Bloggers are moving for legal action ironically to be based on the Information Technology Act, 2000. In Section 66, this Act defines 'Hacking' - as gaining illegal access to any website, or preventing access to a website through illegal means.

My Blogs (mjakbar.org & swagatgroup.net) two of the blogs, out of many that I manage, can now be accessed with Blogger.com Tech tools as they now appear on this site powered by Blogger. Any person with a hosted website need to change the settings in blogger.com to publish its blog via ftp, thus ignoring the ban. However, this demands Blogger help, tech skills, hosting space and unnecessary changes!

- ilaxi

Interested in World Cup Soccer Game? Yeah, I am a great fan and love to watch the game. I even opted to start my blog with the new Google teamed up with Joga - Here you can build your own groups and clubs, share all kinds of football-related info, upload photos and video, and get updates on matches and events. Write your own Blog and make friends, send messages...Isn't this Interesting?


Well, Google celebrates World Cup 2006 by showing a soccer logo at the homepage from June 9.The logo links to a search for 2006 world football which has One-box soccer infos. Google Logo Blog has other Logos like Sherlock Holmes, cakes with google, first google logo, Google Signs, etc. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Got a great Blog and wondering what to do to increase your reach, visibility and readership? Get a Big Exposure with 'Blog Burst'. BlogBurst is a syndication service that places your blog content on top-tier online destinations on the Publishers' websites. Submit your blog for an Invitation Call and once you're accepted into the BlogBurst Network, keep blogging as usual. The Publishers picks up your contents and you reach a target audience with that byline line, driving traffic to you Blog!

Sounds great. The current chosen topics cater to travel, sports, home décor, fashion and lifestyle. It's Pluck that's announced the start of BlogBurst's content syndication to several newspaper sites and other publishers.BlogBurst's powerful Publisher Workbench will help Publishers discover and source talented contributing bloggers and their posts - Now is the time to know who are the real 'Winners' of the Blog Awards that we see on the web! Get into the BlogBurst groove and let your Blog reach for a read.

- ilaxi

Google breaks the language barrier with this translation feature. Using machine translation technology, Google now gives English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. Currently, Google offers English translation from Chinese Simplified), French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Click Google Translate tool, you will be taken to a version of this Kidsfstech page that has been automatically translated into Spanish from English.The translation you are seeing was produced automatically by Google, state-of-the-art technology without the intervention of human translators.

You can translate the website http:kidsfreesouls.com here and read in any language you wish.For the Altavista translations, visit the site here for the link.

Well, Do you have an Adsense account? Recently, a German publication has apparently reported that AdSense is planning on releasing a feature that will enable advertisers to target ads not just by keywords but coordinates or location. If you are unable to read in German language, here is Google Translate tool to help you. Check this out:-)

- ilaxi

Google Sitemaps in its Beta version gives an opportunity to present site’s pages to Google in XML or text and than google will crawl and spider the pages getting you indexed faster. So, it seems!

Sitemaps made easier for a novice to be self SEO. Just Log in, follow the instructions and upload a file to verify. No hassles. The Site overview shows the stats of your site with top search queries n clicks, errors of your pages like the 404, cache pages, indexed pages, linked pages, related pages, info google has about your pages, etc. More, it shows Crawl Stats like the pages crawled, page rank.

So, if you have a website or a blog, here is Google Sitemaps for you : Google Bot sees you! Log in and follow the steps. Be your own SEO!

- ilaxi

Google, the Internet search giant could drive profound changes in the media, entertainment and technology landscape in 2006. It's gonna be a Google fueled paranoia with Google cornering the market on low cost PCS! The Google-branded computers would be manufactured in China and sold below $199 in Walmart stores throughout North America. Loaded with Free Gmail accounts and one gig of online storage space, a googlized version of Linux, the mini-computers would run what was essentially a Google made operating system, employing Google's vast array of free, membership based services, server-side software features along with the host of other real and anticipated Google features.

The do gooders google will unveil video purchase options and a new downloadable software pack from the company at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. A number of announcements are expected to emerge as Yahoo's Terry Semel and Microsoft's Bill Gates will be there too! Let's wait for more to come our way this year 2006 - Btw, Was there any Nostradamus Predictions on the Cyber wars??? I hear that there gonna be a great Cyber War in time to come!

- ilaxi

At least, Let there be No War on Web!!!

With the new year bells ringing in great happy hours of surfing on web, here comes the Trojans riding on the web horse! Indians are ever the inquisite 'Hackers' - Yeah, I mean it as I came across a lot of guys who played the tricks and boasted the savvy types. Talk of Ankit Fadia - And you find him as Featured story of Ankit Fadia's Hacking Books and his tricks of the Hacking game. Every journalist (who don't understand Internet roads) interviewed him and placed him on top of the hack charts - ugh oh!!!

Well, right now, I gonna talk of the Trojan Horse I mentioned. Techshout.com reports that a new, deceptive Trojan Horse program has surfaced. The program is engineered to produce fake Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The ads are incorporated in Google AdSense, the program that lets website owners display ads from Google’s list of advertisers. The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads.

It's been Raoul Bangera, an Indian web publisher who discovered a bogus program and contacted Adsense Team. Bangera emailed the team a number of cases, including various screenshots, log files of an infected computer and system files as proof. The AdSense team validated the news saying, “We can confirm from the screenshots that these are fake Google ads, formatted to look like legitimate ads. We agree that this phenomenon is likely the result of malicious software installed on your computer.”

This is not for the first time Google adsense has been hit. In January 2005, Google took immediate action and removed some ads that caused malicious code to be installed on visitor’s computers. Google is smart enough and can let no loopholes at their end.

I only wonder, Raoul Bangera could be a net savvy or know the tricks of the web? Smart google will find smart ways to rule the web, indeed!

- ilaxi

The Next Generation - Asimo. Yeah, I was just blogging here about the Next Generation Humanoid Robot, targeting a new level of mobility.

Honda added intelligence technology to ASIMO which is capable of interpreting the postures and gestures of humans and moving independently in response. ASIMO’s ability to interact with humans has advanced significantly—it can greet approaching people, follow them, move in the direction they indicate, and even recognize their faces and address them by name.

Further, utilizing networks such as the Internet, ASIMO can provide information while executing tasks such as reception duties of receiving and delivery coffee mug try and pushing the serving cart with drinks.




Following a recent appearance amidst the winter splendour of Helsinki, ASIMO even helped open the 8th International Middle East Motor Show in sun-drenched Dubai.

Integration with user's network system, Asimo can execute functions appropriately based on the user's customer data; greet visitors, informing personnel of the visitor's arrival by transmitting messages and pictures of the visitor's face; guide visitors to a predetermined location, etc. Aso Accessing information via the Internet, ASIMO can become a provider of news and weather updates, for example, ready to answer people's questions, etc.

Amazing!!! New waves of technology and robots will rule one day!

- ilaxi

Yahoo Mindset, the Intent-driven Search and it allows you to Find the results you like or sort the way you need!

A Yahoo! Research demo that applies a new twist on search that uses machine learning technology to give you a choice: View Yahoo! Search results sorted according to whether they are more commercial or more informational (i.e., from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources).

Yeah, now put the keywords in Yahoo Mindset 'Net newspaper for kids' and there I (Kidsfreesouls site of mine) stand with results # 1, #2 and # 5 of about 467812 for net newspaper for kids:-) This is fine. But the best part is that the demo provides a slider widget for users to explicitly specify their intent. Leaving the slider in the middle means they want to use the original Yahoo! search result order. Moving the slider to the extreme right means they want the top results to be those which the classifier is most confident are "non-commercial". Putting the slider in between those two positions means a blend -- somewhat faithful to the original ordering but also tending to bring the more obvious non-commercial pages to the top. Similarly, sliding into the left half indicates blending of commercialness confidence vs original ordering.

Complicating? Machine learning...well, thats the way of the web! Read here to explore what exactly Intent driven Search - Mindset is related to with great mind set to Yahoo!

I am still wondering with this Beta - should I tilt the widget towards the right? Or just leave in center as it is? Yahoooo.........please help!

- ilaxi

Google recently announced an exciting change to the Google Print product.The Google Print has been renamed as Google Book Search.

I feel this is user-friendly name and Book search is more a discovery of world books available on the web. More books would be promoted through this program and surfers can judge from the book cover and even get an opportunity to read the contents page, copyright details and a chapter of the book.

I already have the MJ Akbar Books account with google and a click from the website to Google Book search will land you up reading a chapter of the book 'Shade of Swords'. The Author account with google means parterning for the google revenue and of coz, the author's books need to be either transported by courier to google or the book pdfs of details to be uploaded on their server.

Way to go Google......More Publisher may tie up with google and more authors will reflect on searches with Google also planning to add Book Search on its main search.

Ego surfing by authors are sure to bring them great results!

-ilaxi