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New Google Competitor Cuil Has A Long Way To Go
There’s a new player in the search engine game, and its name is Cuil (pronounced “cool”).
It’s built by former Google masterminds, and claims to index more of the web than Google can. The big claim to fame for Cuil is their ability to index the world’s websites and return search results to users in a much speedier manner than Google and the other engines… which saves tons of money. It’s been estimated that Google spends billions every year just paying for their index and search functionality.
Cuil is also displaying a unique–some would say “mind-boggling”–new interface. Instead of a single column of results, Cuil displays search results in a three-column layout, making it feel more like a magazine format.
The real problem, though, is that their results aren’t particularly good yet. Now, they’ve only just launched, and the site is still in a beta-testing phase (though it is open to the public). For instance, if you search for “keystone business solutions hendersonville”, Cuil says it can’t find any results. On Google, we come up #1.
They’re taking a beating for this in the press, but honestly… you have to expect a brand new search engine to take some time ironing out the kinks. While the first impression isn’t all that lovely, I’m personally quite excited about this.
Someday soon, someone has to step up and offer a real challenge to Google’s dominance in the search marketplace. They simply have too much power and control right now (and I love Google!). For the consumers to get the maximum service, there needs to be competition. And who better to compete with Google than a team of former Googlers?
Check back down the line for more updates on what’s happening with Cuil.
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Wal-Mart Testing Their Own Version Of Geek Squad, ...
Should we just surrender to Wal-Mart already? They are fast becoming a one-stop shop for, well, everything. Most Super Centers have a fast-food restaurant in them, as well as an eye-care facility, a silk-screen printer, a hair salon, and more.
You can get your car fixed at Wal-Mart. You can even buy Search Engine Optimization services from them. There is seemingly no end to the products and services they seek to offer.
Now, you can get your gadgets repaired as well. Wal-Mart is quietly testing their own version of Best Buy’s Geek Squad, aiming to get their foot in the door of the ever-growing tech-repair-and-support market.
Geek Squad has a reputation that is far less than stellar, so I can only guess at the kind of qualified technicians and superior service the Wal-Mart Solution Station will offer. I do know, however, that the lines at the Solution Station will be eleven people deep at all times, as mandated by Wal-Mart store operations code.
Listen, if you’re a Wal-Mart disciple, and you already trust them for your produce and meat products, your tire repair, and your household goods… odds are you won’t have a problem trusting them with your computer repair too. So this might be the best news you’ve ever heard. But in-store repair operations like Geek Squad and Circuit City’s Firedog are infamous for overcharging naive computer users who don’t know any better for service they didn’t really need to begin with.
So don’t be surprised if, when I pass you standing in line at Wal-Mart’s Solution Station, I laugh out loud and point at you.
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Get Paid For Your Pictures
Are you a photog? Do you take digital pictures and upload them to Flickr to share with the world? Did you ever wish that someone would come along and see one of your pictures and instantly think you deserved money for it?
Well, your dreams are about to come true. Maybe.
Actually, it would be more accurate to say that your dreams now have a better chance of coming true.
In a long-awaited deal, Flickr is partnering with Getty Images to help their amatuer photographer users get their photos licensed.
From the article:
“Under a partnership announced this week, Getty’s editors will peruse Flickr to find pictures that may appeal to newspapers, magazines, book publishers, advertising agencies and other businesses. Getty will then contact photographers who posted shots with sales potential to see if they’re interested in licensing the pictures.”
Oh, you’ll have to split your profits on the pictures licensed 50/50 with Getty Images, but that seems pretty fair considering they’re doing all the legwork to get your pictures noticed. I mean, it was money you weren’t going to make before, right? So it’s all gravy.
This is going to be hugely popular with Flickr users, who are already a pretty passionate bunch. I also think it will drive some photographers to Flickr from other similar sites.
Just don’t expect all your photos to be selected for licensing. In fact, I’m betting a very small percentage of users are going to make money. But it’s a fantastic way for some phenomenal-yet-undiscovered shutterbugs to get noticed.
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Screen Savers Are So Last Year
Looks like we can add screen savers to the list of things we have and use that are completely unnecessary (like butlers or… your appendix).
See, just a few years back, the average computer screen used phosphors, which might suffer from “burn-in”, where images left on screen for too long would burn into the screen forever. That’s why screen savers like the flying star field or the flying toasters were invented (why were early screen saver designers obsessed with flying things?)
But today’s flat-screen LCD monitors are made with completely different materials and “burn-in” is officially no longer a concern.
Yet people still use screen savers as though their life (or the life of their computer) depended on it. This guy suggests that if you simply turn your monitor off when it’s not in use, instead of using a screen saver, you’ll save energy. If everyone in your company does it… that energy savings might actually show up on the bottom line (depending on how many people work for you).
Even if you’re not concerned about saving energy, you can still deactivate your screen saver. It’s not saving anything, preventing anything, or protecting anything. It’s just… there.
Read MorePosted by Jeremy Scott | 2 Comments
The TSA Would Like To See You Naked
Do you remember the security X-ray screeners in the movie Total Recall, where the passengers filed through a corridor and on the outside… security personnel could see their skeletons as they passed through?
Those are now a reality… sort of.
Ten US Airports are getting the machines, with a total of 30 screeners planned across the country by the end of 2008.
The controversy, of course, is that in addition to any guns or other contraband, these machines also apparently show off the passenger’s naked body. The ACLU thinks that’s unacceptable:
“People have no idea how graphic the images are,” Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.
Okay, is there anything the ACLU finds acceptable? Isn’t it their mission to abhor and challenge pretty much everything?
But seriously, they have a point here. How many of you, by show of hands, want the TSA screeners to see you naked? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Oh, but they won’t know who you are:
While it allows the security screeners — looking at the images in a separate room — to clearly see the passenger’s sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger’s face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.
Right. Because they can’t see my face as I’m walking into the machine. Somehow I don’t see the fact that the faces are blurred making Americans feel better about being so exposed.
The images are also not stored in any way, but are erased once the passenger is cleared through the checkpoint. So that’s good, at least.
Look, not to be graphic or anything, but I really don’t care if the TSA wants to see me naked. I’m all for doing whatever it takes to help make the skies safer. And I’m no Adonis–it’s their loss, really, if they have to put me in one of these things.
But millions of Americans are going to cry foul.
Thankfully, the TSA is saying that travelers have some options:
Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines. “The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down,” she told AFP.
Sweet. So if I don’t want strangers to see me naked I can choose to let strangers put their hands all over me. Excellent choice. I believe that’s what’s called a Catch-22.
Anyway, now that the TSA is blogging, you can head over there and leave them some feedback on this new development.
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