Askville is a new site from Amazon that promises to let users ask and answer questions.  You can see that site here. 

Now, this is merely the latest in a line of sites that aimed to be a one-stop repository for all information.  Google tried first with their own Answers product.  It actually let you bid on what price you’d be willing to pay for the answer to your question, and then if any of the corps of “answerers” were interested in doing the research to find your answer, they’d take the job.  It ultimately flopped, because…as it turns out…people want answers; they’re just not willing to pay for them. 

Yahoo has an Answers service as well.  I experimented with it a few times.  It’s devolved greatly into a MySpace-like haven for teenagers to ask things like “What color dress should I wear to prom?” or “Is my boyfriend cheating on me?” or even “Which football team will win tonight’s big game?”  Sure, there are some “legitimate” questions and answers on Yahoo Answers, but they are few and far between. 

Pardon me for wondering aloud here, but…if Yahoo and Google (two of the most recognizable web brands) can’t make an Answers product work, why does Amazon think they can do any better? 

It doesn’t matter why–clearly they think they can do better. 

You have to sign up to even use the thing, which isn’t too bad, I guess.  I went ahead and created an account because, hey…who doesn’t like free answers?  Since I’m in the market for a piece of exercise equipment, I asked a question about product recommendations.  However, after submitting my question, I was told that I will receive “at least 5 answers in the next 7 days.”  Yikes!  So it’s not a fast service, then, eh?

In contrast, the Yahoo Answers site I just ripped on a second ago returned a very useful answer to the same query in about five minutes.  So…you can come back here in seven days to see if I got any decent answers, or you can just use Yahoo Answers.  Or Wikipedia.  Or your really smart uncle. 

Google is reportedly experimenting with a voting system for its search results.  Users who are logged in to their Google account would then be able to vote up or down on various results returned for a search query, letting the company know which results are deemed worthy and which ones are deemed useless.  Then, over time, future searches would have some of the “useless” results weeded out and would return more tailored suggestions. 

This is sort of big news.  Anyone who uses Google with any frequency will tell you that there are still a frustrating number of first page listings that aren’t terribly accurate.  Searching for real estate agents or attorneys, for example, still yeilds a disproportionate number of “spammy” link farm and directory sites.  I don’t know about you, but if I’m searching for a real estate agent, I don’t want a site with a gigantic list of real estate agents, I want the site of an actual agent.  Maybe you’re different.  I’ve always felt that sites like these are redundant, adding just another step in the filtering process that keeps me from getting the results I want.  So now, presumably, I can log into my Google account and vote those listings down when I see them. 

What does this mean for your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign?  Well, not a lot.  It’s still just an experiment, and Google is even saying that we shouldn’t be surprised to see this function disappear soon.  It’s just an idea they’re goofing around with.  But if it eventually becomes a permanent fixture, it’s still only for logged in users.  SEO isnt’ going to go away just because users can customize their results.  Those customized results will still be ranked and ordered by Google’s algorithm.  It will continue to be very important to have your site’s structure and content laid out in a way that best communicates with the engine’s spiders. 

But it’s exciting to see the leader in search experimenting with letting their users have some measure of control over the results they see. 

There are serious rumors afoot that Google will soon unveil a service called Gdrive.  Gdrive will be an online storage service for all your documents and files you don’t have room for on your hard drive. 

Industry pundits have long been heralding a supposed move to online storage, suggesting that hard drives–even operating systems–could soon be moot. 

One of the obvious benefits of storing your files online is that you can access them from anywhere, from any computer. 

There are, of course, already several companies offering online file storage.  But Google has a way of rapidly becoming a major player in whatever fields they enter.  Gdrive, then, could catapult the concept of online storage into the mainstream.  As of yet, Google is staying mum on the issue, not even commenting on the rumors.  Stay tuned for more. 

It’s not every day I get a chance to write about technology AND pizza, all in the same article.  So you’ll have to pardon me if I seem excited. 

Papa John’s has unveiled a new service:  you can now order a pizza via text message.  Hooray!

And just in the nick of time, because ordering a pizza the regular way is such a long and tedious process that I was just about to give up trying altogether.  Using the phone or the internet to place an order for a pie is just too arduous. 

But in all seriousness, this is a neat little innovation, and hopefully–for Papa John’s sake–the pizza-craving, text-messaging demographic (i.e., teenagers) won’t find some way to abuse this system or create false pizza orders on their friends’ phones. 

The sad thing is, I’m just old enough to be very poor at text messaging…which means that ordering through this new method will likely not save me any time or effort.  Bummer.  But your 15-year-old is gonna love it, as long as you’re buying. 

With all the recent controversy surrounding the lead-based paint and recalls of Chinese toys, something tells me that toy safety is going to be a huge issue this Christmas 

A group called World Against Toys Causing Harm (or WATCH–heh, clever) has released its list of the 10 Worst Toys this Year.  By “worst,” what they really mean is “most dangerous.”  And that’s cool and all, but I definitely think there should be a list of the 10 Lamest Toys to go alongside this as a companion piece. 

Anyway, some of you no doubt have children, and you likely try and do what you can to help those kids avoid injury.  If so, you might want to check out the list so that little Johnny doesn’t poke his eye out this Christmas with the Jack Sparrow Spinning Dagger.  Or the Rubber Band Shooter from Simple Toys LLC (a rubber band shooter is, indeed, a simple idea for a toy…simply dangerous!).  There’s also the extremely dangerous Dora the Explorer Lamp, which apparently has the potential for shocks and burns (oooh, fun!). 

Go here to read the whole list and the MSNBC article about it. 

Building a website and filling it with content can be a difficult process, especially if it’s your first site.  We have a lot of clients ask us what they should put on their website.  Often this is directly related to what your intended purpose is.  Are you trying to sell products?  Are you trying to build a community and increase communication with your clients? 

Despite the many different functions websites can serve, there are definitely some common design-related mistakes that we see; instances where the layout or look of a website might actually hinder your success.  For instance, one of the most common errors is creating a website or page that is too busy, creating information overload in your visitors and maybe driving them away all together. 

Check out this handy top-10 list of common web design mistakes.  It should give you an excellent frame of reference when considering how your website should look and behave. 

A new free word game online has already helped the U.N. feed over 50,000 hungry people.  The concept is brilliantly simple:  put a word game on the web, offer people the chance to feed the hungry by playing the free word game, underwrite your good deeds with advertising revenue. 

The game is called FreeRice.  It’s a multiple choice word game where players choose the correct meaning for obscure words.  For every correct selection, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. 

So the next time you’re looking to waste some time with an online game (and let’s be honest…we all know you’re going to), why not try FreeRice.  You’ll get your fix relieving the boredom, with the added benefit of making a tangible difference in the lives of hungry people all over the world. 

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Soon there won’t be any place to hide from Google. 

The search giant has unveiled plans to provide car-side maps and driving directions as part of a partnership with a gas pump manufacturer. 

The pumps will have a full color display showing a traditional Google map and will also offer information on in-store specials, nearby hotels, restaurants, and other local attractions.  Am I the only person left who goes to the gas station purely for gasoline? 

This is, of course, quite welcome news to gas station attendants everywhere who are tired of half their customers starting sentences with “How do I get to…”. 

The tech world is abuzz today with the news that Wal-Mart has begun selling a $199 Linux-based (non-Windows) computer that comes fully integrated with several Google services and programs.  It’s called the Everex gPC TC2502.

This is big news for two reasons:  1) because it’s another new innovation from Google, and puts them more squarely in competition with Microsoft, and 2) because it’s a PC for $199!  Heck, the Hundred Dollar Laptop costs more than that.

So…first things first.  How is this a Google computer?  Well, it comes pre-installed with something called the gOS, which is a specially-made Google version of the Linux Operating System that runs GMail, Google Documents, Goog-411, and more.  It also runs Open Office, an open-source competitor to Microsoft Word (Open Office actually works with Word files). 

This is big news in the battle for tech supremacy between Microsoft and Google, because it’s another area where Google is “invading” Bill Gates’ territory–Operating Systems. 

Even if the Google involvement wasn’t present, this PC would be a big deal, because it’s $199.  This is sort of revolutionary pricing.  The standard Windows license fee and Microsoft Office license fee would be more than $199 combined.  And that’s where this new machine makes its price difference…using open-source (free) programs like Open Office on the open-source (free) Linux OS, and incorporating the already-free Google programs. 

The question is this:  who is the target audience, discount shoppers or tech-head anti-Microsoft geeks?  There is a great possibility here that a lot of folks lured in by the cheap price will be confused and/or lost when they get the PC home and find Linux instead of Windows. 

The computer has a 1.5 gigahertz processor, an 80GB hard drive, and 512 MB of RAM.  What that means is that it’s probably not fast enough or robust enough to handle the latest cutting-edge video games, but it can more than keep up with the user who wants a PC for email, surfing the web, and creating documents. 

Oh yeah, you can click here to see this thing already available on Wal-Mart’s website.