Blogged IT News

Whoa to Digg.com

2010-05-07T19:11:00.000-05:00

We don't believe Things can be to happy over at digg.com.

Keven?? is this what happens when you are in charge?

Keven's Blog Post:

"Hey everyone,

This morning we faced the difficult task of reducing our team by about 10%. This was an emotional and rough morning for everyone involved. Laying off dedicated and hard working individuals is extremely difficult, but we tried our best to treat everyone with the utmost respect and support. I hope all of you will join me in the effort to assist all of those affected, be it as a reference or a referring source and most importantly, as a friend.
This is one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make recently but we strongly believe that it is the right decision for the long-term  health of the company. In order to achieve our goals, we are putting more emphasis on the engineering and development efforts. In fact, we are still hiring for these teams as they are critical in getting us to where we need to be for the future, for our impending upcoming redesign and much beyond. The only way for us to truly succeed is to adapt and adjust as necessary.
I’m sure there will be many follow- up questions to this email. So, we’ll be holding an all hands today at 3pm where you can ask questions and share your comments.
Thanks,
Kevin"

Google's New Seach Results Page?

2010-05-07T18:55:00.000-05:00

What do you think of the new search result page that Google has unveiled? A welcome addition or redundancy?

Here at Blogged IT News we feel that it is a quick catch up with Bing. That's despite that fact that Google doesn't really need to play "Catch up".

Zooomr.com the next best thing or next BIG thing?

2006-03-16T15:03:00.000-06:00

zooomr.com has been making some huge waves in photo sharing this last past week. Since the purchase of flickr last year by yahoo many have been waiting for a nice new solo photo sharing service and zooomr.com is just that.

Flickr fans have said that zooomr.com has ripped off flickr with the look and feel of the web 2.0 app.

but we feel a little different about the service.

If you know something works why wouldn't you copy it?

but the Zooomr's didn't stop there, they added a feature called streamr that has the feel of the apple dashboard & the flickr slide show.

Those features with a choice of login providers makes this one tight app.

Zooomr might have copied a lot from flickr, but with the originality they have already demonstrated, Zooomr will be the next big thing in photo sharing.

Welcome Back

2006-02-23T23:18:00.000-06:00

We Would Like to say sorry for not keeping up with the blogging community for the last few weeks. we have been testing new products and services and will be showing some product reviews in the next few days.

So sit back, relax and enjoy Blogged IT News Once again!

Windows Live Contest !!! Question 1

2006-01-17T23:14:00.000-06:00

In 1998, who was the first person to invest into google with $100,000? Email your answer to content@bloggeditnews.com If you are one of the first two readers to email the correct answer, you will get an invite to Windows Live Messenger!

Windows Live Messenger Invite Contest!!

2006-01-15T10:39:00.000-06:00

If you havn't gotten an invite to Windows Live Messenger yet don't fear! Every week The Blogged Network will be giving away two Free Windows Live Messenger Invites to two different readers. The only thing the reader has to do is be the first to email us the correct answer at contact@bloggeditnews.com . The first two readers with the correct answer will receive the invites!! The first Question will be posted within 36 hours. We also would like to thank Chris Sinclair for our invite!

Windows Live Mail Problems

2005-12-16T00:05:00.000-06:00

Windows Live Mail finally sent us a beta invite to test out the new email interface. We couldn't believe that we were finally going to be able to see this new fangled thing. The screen shot above is the email, notice it says "The Wait Is Over". So I follow the instructions above and register a new hotmail username, I still fail to see the reason why, because this is a new beta, but I do anyway. I keep following the email, and reregister with Microsoft Live Mail, and then, wait & wait & wait. So after many hours of not receiving another invite, I decide that the best thing to do is write the tech support at Live Mail. Heres what I Said: "Hello I got an email telling me this "The good news is that the wait is over"......... I did this and i still don't have a beta account? what gives? didn't the email mean that I have this now?" And the reply was,

Thank-you for contacting Windows Live Mail Support, my name is ----------. I understand that you are having issues today with the invite you received. The invite that you received is not an actual invite it is asking you to sign up for the beta with a @hotmail or @msn email address. The Mail Beta program runs on the Hotmail server and we cannot have other domains getting email at that domain. If you wish to participate in the Windows Live Mail Program you must resign with your current @hotmail address or if you don’t have and @hotmail please go to www.hotmail.com and get a free account. Once you have signed up with your hotmail email address you should get an invitation shortly. Regards, ------------ Windows Live Mail Support

Hi ---------- I did that. I have -------------@hotmail.com and I signed up with live mail again. how long does it take to get an invite again?

Hello -------------, Usually once you have signed up it takes approx. 3-6 weeks. We are in high gear right now with the invites going out so it could be sooner. I hope this answers your question. I look forward to helping you further once you are part of our program. Regards, ------------ Windows Live Mail Support Team

Hi ----------, I guess I didn't understand the email that I received in the first place. Why did it say "The good news is that the wait is over!"? Why do I now have to wait up to 6 more weeks? I don't understand why I got an email saying I can get the beta now, but then told I have to wait a lot longer? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Dear -------------, I do understand your frustration with the situation. The email should have been clearer, when it is sent to a domain that is not @hotmail or @msn you still have to go thru the process of signing up with your @hotmail account. We are told that there is a 3-6 week wait, but seeing as it was sent to your @other domain it may be sooner. I apologize for the confusion and inconvenience. Once you have the new hotmail I assure you that it will be worth the wait. I hope I helped ease some of the confusion and frustration. Regards, ------------ Windows Live Mail Support Team.

So we will keep waiting and hopefully it wont be to long before we receive a real Mail Beta Invite.

Google Searching Your Music

2005-12-15T00:25:00.000-06:00

Google is going to release a search feature for music, enabling a user to search for music from the folowing services, iTunes , RealNetworks Rhapsody, eMusic, Amazon.com.Yahoo already has a service called yahoo audio thats lets users do the same thing, but also includes search results from MSN music, Yahoo music and emusic , (a complete list can be fround here ).So once again Google is singing "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better".

Google Firefox Extensions

2005-12-14T21:48:00.000-06:00

Google has added two new firefox extensions, one that enables you two see if a site is a phishing site, and a second two see what people are talking about on a particular web page ,called Blogger Web Comments. we will have more on these extensions after we get to test them more.

Yahoo Messenger Phone Calling is Here, Sorta

2005-12-14T02:57:00.000-06:00

Yahoo has released yahoo messenger with phone calling features in the following markets, France, Germany, Italy ,Spain and Hong Kong. The US, UK and other english speaking areas will have to wait until the first part of 2006 to have phone capabilities in yahoo messenger.

Rhapsody On my Mac

2005-12-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

Recently I finally decided that i needed to purchase a mac. so after going through hours of painstaking decision making sessions, i finely decided on an iBook (Yes i know about what might happen in January,,, ahhhhhh). iTunes of course is right at home on the mac, thats great , but I'm a yahoo subscription guy, I don't care if is own my music as long as i can listen to it on demand. So when I heard about Real's new non "pigheaded" announcement of making an web accessible version of Rhapsody, I thought this is digital greatness..... Then I discovered something, I'm still dealing with old Real. I have had a Rhapsody 25 account since they had come out with it, I've always been fascinated with FREE music, but now I decided since this will be my jukebox of choice I had better shell out 9.99 so I can keep listening over the 25 song limit. So off I go putting my credit card info into yet another online service. After putting all information about me my household and anyone that has ever come into contact with me, I'm told to download Rhapsody 3, not the plugin that enables play on a mac or linux computer, but the .exe file for windows users. Ok I'll let that slide, its a new service and there are always kinks to be worked out. Instead I go to rhapsody.com and get the plugin, so now I'm all ready to listen to my music, all 1.3 million songs, BUT hold on, I'm told I only have a Rhapsody 25 account . So after much stress looking at the account page, I finally receive an email confirming my purchase. So I'm safe now,, wouldn't you think? NOOO I log back on to Rhapsody.com and it still says I'm a Rhapsody 25 member!!!! So i give them the benefit of the doubt, I decide to “sleep” on this bad decision of mine, maybe it'll be working in the morning? NOPE,,,,, I'm (as you might be able to tell) getting a little ticked off. I decide to write Reals costumer service & fill them in on the problems I'm having here, and tell them, that in this amount of time i could've just downloaded what i wanted on iTunes and just been done with it. Well I'm told to expect an email back within 24 hours. I can't wait 24 hours or i didn't want to wait. So I call Real's costumer service (this is the number 1-866-597-5505). Right away I'm put on hold, and then i get to talk to someone !!! However with the combination of my cell phone and the broken English of the customer service rep., I'm having the hardest time telling him my user name,,, but alas I get it to him and he says that resetting my password should fix everything (Question, if this would fix everything, why didn't Rhapsody say this on there site???) Oh and I forgot,, when I told him I was on a mac computer, I received this reaction, “a MAC, your trying to do this on a mac?” So now I'm forwarded to tech support division 2. Again I'm get the same reaction when I tell them I'm trying to do this on rhapsody.com on a mac computer, so again I'm told if they reset my password I "should" be good to go, so after two more password resets & clearing my cookies I'm finally able to play my music with Rhapsody Unlimited. This is what I have to say to Rob Glaser, of Real, when you offer a new service, you might want to tell your tech support how to use it!! If you don't tell your tech support how to use a service, it might be a little "pigheaded". Where have I heard that before?

Japan and Xbox 360 Sales

2005-12-13T22:16:00.000-06:00

Reuters is reporting that Microsoft has sold less then half of its Xbox 360s in Japan on its first weekend made available to the Japanese public. About 62,000 units have been taken off store shelves and Bloomberg says the number is as low as 41,817. The original Xbox sold 123,000 in its first three days. What is the reason for this underwhelming response to Microsoft's baby? The lack of role playing games is much to blame, most notably the postponement of "Dead or Alive 4". The game was to be released with the Xbox, but now it has been pushed back until December 29. Japans Gaming market has largely been dominated by Sony and Nintendo , With Sony having an almost 80% share of the market. Time will tell of microsft can make a dent in the Asian market. The one thing that they do have going for them is a 6 month lead on both Sony and Nintendo. Both companies plan a 2006 release of their next generation consoles, the Play Station 3 & the Nintendo Revolution.

Google vs live.com

2005-12-13T22:10:00.000-06:00

Google is apparently worried about live.com, because they have updated the personalized google homepage (google.com/ig. Google announced "Homepage API" so now users can make their own modules, Already MT. View employees have added several new modules including a clock, a game, and a new weather map. This comes after Microsoft proceeded to do the same with their live.com opening it up to more features. Start.com features many “web gadgets that find their way into live.com . Start.com lets users build web gadgets and display them on their homepage. OK readers, which do you like better, live.com or google.com/ig ? How would you change either of them? Post a comment

Yahoo Mail Beta

2005-12-13T17:59:00.000-06:00

Blogged IT News finally was able to test Yahoo Mail Beta, and let us just say, wow. Gmail you're in trouble. The thing about Yahoo Mail Beta that you might have been thinking is "that is the ugliest thing I've ever seen" you're right, we don't care much for the looks either. But what would you rather have, looks or functionality? Functionality and features are things that Y Mail Beta doesn't lack. Y Mail Beta is built as an Ajax application. It reminds you more of outlook then a web based email client. Features include a RSS reader (so much better then google web clips),Tabbed emails, Drag and Drop email to folders, better search, and so much more. We really think that Gmail is in some hot water now. Sign up today to get an invite soon Yahoo! Mail Beta supports: IE 5.5 and higher (for Windows) Firefox 1.0 Mozilla Suite 1.7 Netscape 7.2

A del.icio.us Reception?

2005-12-10T00:08:00.000-06:00

Cnet.com is reporting that the overall reception of Yahoo's acquisition of del.icio.us is favorable. I must say however that when Yahoo purchased Flickr earlier this year I was modified, the same can be said about todays news. What happens when a large industry leader buys an up and coming company is truly awful, all of a sudden, imagination is lost, everything becomes very corporate. Within just months of Yahoo's Flickr buy, what happened? Yahoo decided that its users would be better served if they were forced into a Yahoo account or merge it with their current Yahoo name. All of a sudden a new Flickr group was started to counter this act of thoughtlessness. Why did yahoo do this? It truly must've been an act of thoughtlessness. If there is such a thing as a more loyal user then Flickr a user, it would be a del.icio.us user. Now while I would hardly think that Yahoo purchased del.icio.us to get to its user base, the reason must be to acquire the technology behind the site. How Yahoo decides to use this technology will be very crucial. They need to avoid anything like the Flickr upraise this year. First they need to condition their uses to the change and then compensate them so that they feel like "hey yahoo's not like the other big guys". We will have to wait and see how Yahoo is met by the del.icio.us user.

Update: Google Earth for mac

2005-12-09T19:19:00.000-06:00

Blogged IT News has indeed seen a beta version, not an alpha of google earth running on Mac OS X. It uses openGL rendering and looks a lot like it's windows counterpart. Currently The Google Earth site says "Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it.".

Image via apple insider

The beta looks like it runs fine, however it does freeze when you put the mouse over the dock.

Song and Lyrics Crackdown

2005-12-09T13:03:00.000-06:00

The BBC is reporting that the MPA (Music Publishers' Association) is going to rapidly pursue those that are sharing illegal sheet music & lyrics online. MPA president Lauren Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can "throw in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective". We will see if this if this is jail worthy or if this will spawn a itunes like sheet music store. Either way its likely that music industry will report that they are losing money.

Google Transit

2005-12-09T02:10:00.000-06:00

What would happen if google told you what bus to take, where to walk, what cab to get in to, and then what train you needed to get on?

You would have Google Transit, the latest Google Maps incarnation. Google Transit, currently only supporting the city of portland, was another 20 percent of a google employees time project.

Transit enables a user to find the quickest route to a destination while telling how much you should expect to pay for using public transportation. It also tells you the driving cost vs. public transit .

You might be asking how do they know how much it cost to drive?

This is what they say.

"Cost of driving is based on the average mileage for the shortest route between your start and end addresses and the cost per mile (40.5 cents) that the IRS allows businesses to deduct. This is only an estimate and doesn't include things like tolls, parking fees, or variations in gas mileage for different types of cars."

What's That, a Zenpod ?

2005-12-08T22:50:00.000-06:00

Creative's newest "ipod killer" is the Zen Vision:M. It looks unsurprisingly like an ipod. Creative might feel that they have an opening here to capitalize on the ipod's great looks. If apple decides to follow through with a lawsuit, creative has some ammunition ready to go, they hold some patents to software that the ipod possible uses. The patents apply to jukebox navigation.

Google Earth coming to Mac

2005-12-08T22:34:00.000-06:00

Apple Insider is reporting that Google is developing a beta version of its Google Earth program. The apple insider story also included pictures of a version that has been floating around the web recently. It is believed that the OS X Version uses OpenGL rendering. The Google website currently says : Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it).

Firefox 1.5

2005-11-29T15:42:00.000-06:00

Betanews got some bad publicity when they told about this email, before mozilla posted the updates to the website, but yes firefox 1.5 is coming today. MOZILLA SET TO UNLEASH FIREFOX 1.5 ON TUESDAY, NOV. 29 Mountain View, Calif., Nov. 28, 2005 ––Mozilla Corp. issued the following advisory: Who: Mozilla Corporation What: Mozilla will release the latest version of its wildly popular Firefox Web browser on Tuesday, Nov. 29. Firefox 1.5 builds upon the success of its predecessor to deliver an improved browser with significant performance and usability upgrades, as well as security and privacy enhancements, and greater customization options. When: The afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2005 (Pacific Standard Time). Where: Firefox 1.5 will be available at www.getfirefox.com and www.mozilla.com. The browser, like all Mozilla products, is free of charge. A complete press release outlining the new features in Firefox 1.5, as well as some additional Mozilla news, will be issued tomorrow at the time the new version is available.

Cosmopod.com

2005-11-29T01:24:00.000-06:00

As Microsoft is franticly pursuing Vista & Apple is porting OS X to Intel, a small upstart called Cosmopod is trying to change the landscape of the computing industry. While the idea of a remote desktop is nothing new, the way that Cosmopod goes about creating the experience is truly remarkable. The first revelation you have when you start using this service is, Yes, I Can Access This Anywhere!!! Think of that, anywhere, wherever you are, you can access any file that you have with just an internet connection. Now while there has been Remote Access Software available before, cosmopod is a full fledged operating system complete with a word processor (Open Office of course), instant messenger (kopete) , browser (Firefox) & image editor (The Gimp). So while there are a host of features that can be improved upon, like mp3 playback, video capabilities and overall speed, Cosmopod is perhaps the most innovative thing to hit the web since Google.

Explorer Destroyer & the Google Adsense Program Policy

2005-11-11T00:27:00.000-06:00

Now that Google & Firefox are officially warming up to each other, it seems that everyone is trying to make a dollar off their new arrangement.

Now web sites that have Google Adsense ads can elect to place firefox referring buttons on their sites. When a person downloads both firefox and Google toolbar, the site makes $ 1.00.

People are starting to take referring to a whole new level. The site Explorer Destroyer is explaining how to get the most hits by placing an adsense button on a site.

By placing the google adsense code within the html provided by Explorer Destroyer, a person using internet explorer will have a banner placed over the website telling the user to download firefox. In same cases the html tells the user that the site is not completely internet explorer compatible.

This sounds like a way to make some quick cash, perhaps alot of cash. However look what the Google Adsense program policy states:

Web pages may not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. This includes encouraging users to click on the ads or to visit the advertisers' sites as well as drawing any undue attention to the ads. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as "click here," "support us," "visit these links," or other similar language that could apply to any ad, regardless of content. These activities are strictly prohibited in order to avoid potential inflation of advertiser costs. In addition, publishers may not bring unnatural attention to sites displaying ads or referral buttons through unsolicited mass emails or unwanted advertisements on third-party websites. Publishers are also not permitted to use deceptive or unnatural means to draw attention to or incite clicks on referral buttons.

We don't want to be the party pooper here, but maybe you shouldn't implement this technic just yet.

What do you think? are you going to place Explorer Destroyers html on your site???

https://www.google.com/adsense/policies

http://explorerdestroyer.com/

From an Avid Web Reader

2005-10-26T23:03:00.000-05:00

"We might all want to read or watch this, it kinda helps to remind us that, big bad microsoft does have a human side to it & that the people who work at microsoft arn't just Bill Gates'Evil Little Minyans" Avid Web Reader

Flock Interview

2005-10-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

In our podcast this week, we talked to Bart Decrem, CEO of Flock, he tells us where flock is heading & describes how flocks features will help transform how we use the web. It's a phone conversation so please excuse the noise.