Wave and Buzz never amounted to much, but the new Google+ will be a force to be reckoned with. While downplaying the importance of their new service, it might be a game changer in the social sharing business for Google. It is much more than just sharing status and photos, it is a new way of communicating.
Google+ mainly consists of
• Circles – very similar to Facebook’s friends list, but you don’t need to sign up to be part of a circle.
• Sparks – a topical section where you define your own content.
• Hangouts – a place to meet up with your contacts without needing to schedule; video included.
• Mobile – what I like about the mobile component is the instant upload for photos.
• Huddle – a beter chat application
Another great “new” service from Google is Google Takeout, previously known as the Data Liberation Front. This service allows to export your data from Google products. It currently supports Buzz, Contacts, Picasa, your Google profile and some elements of Google+.
“Oxford’s libraries are among the most celebrated in the world, not only for their incomparable collections of
books and manuscripts, but also for their buildings, some of which have remained in continuous use since the Middle Ages. Among them the Bodleian, the chief among the University’s libraries, has a special place.”
Illustrated history of the library
Divinity School and Duke Humphrey's Library, Oxford
(photo Chris Walton)
One of the world’s biggest collections of historic books, pamphlets and periodicals is to be made available on the internet.
The British Library has reached a deal with search engine Google about 250,000 texts dating from between 1700 and 1870.
It will eventually allow readers to view, search and copy the out-of-copyright works at no charge on both the library and Google books websites.
The project will take some years to complete and Google will cover the costs.
April 20, 2011 – 10:22 am
Media website: Roekeloos.co.za
Media type: Art and Culture Portal
Average number of readers / visitors per month: 20 000+ unique
Reader / Visitor Profile: 34 – 54 year old university educated female from South Africa, with children.
Placement type: In-page
Creative format: *Text, Image, Video (in-stream / overlay), Flash / Rich Media
Ad size: 300×250, 250×250, 160×600, 728×90
QVRP rates per month: R0,40 per impression
* Font size may not be larger than the paragraph text of the page on which the text appear. It must be identified as advertising and must be boxed or differ in colour from paragraph text.
The nofollow attribute must be applied to text.
For sponsorships or dollar rates please contact quintus at qvrp.net .
Researchers from Australia and Japan have successfully transferred a complex set of quantum data in light form.
The name of the machine that conducted the experiments: “The Teleporter”.
Quantum teleporter breakthrough
The first foray into the Afrikaans language e-Book market leaves much to be desired.
Afrikaans is a Germanic language spoken in Southern Africa. The language is related to Dutch and in it’s development borrowed from languages such as Malay, Portuguese, French, German and African languages from the south-eastern zone of Bantu languages.
10 Jaar van Afrikaanse Grappe was made available in December 2010 and to date the downloads have yet to show any promise. There is a fair amount of hype around the book so one might expect to see this reflected in sales.
All hope is not lost as the marketing campaigns are rolling out slowly in order to test the effectiveness of each one.
Lucky that the book was backed up by a traditional print copy. A bookseller picked it up the first week and sales are going well.
The book is available from QVRP as a download (PDF) for a discounted $8.
If you are outside South Africa and would like to buy a print copy, please contact Quintus at qvrp.net
For more information about the book please visit 10 Jaar van Afrikaanse Grappe
(in Afrikaans).
February 9, 2011 – 8:36 am
Mobile technology company Myriad will demonstrate new software next week that will allow Android applications to run on non-Android phones.
Myriad also introduced virtual machine software called last year. This software speeds up performance of Android applications by up to three times and improves battery life on Android phones.
Interesting to note that Nokia’s new high end phones will be running compatible operating systems. This will mean that Nokia customers will be able to run Nokia Apps and Android Apps. Not only will customers have a wider choice in Apps, but they will also be able to choose between interfaces.
November 18, 2010 – 7:59 am
Part of a small beta test group trying out a new Google AdSense feature called general category blocking.
General category blocking lets you block ads that fall into predetermined categories. At this stage you can only opt out of a set number of categories. The feature is only availbale in the new AdSense interface.
First indications are that this filtering option will not only provide you with more control over the ads on your sites, but will also have a positive revenue impact and may even help with the profiling of users.
October 4, 2010 – 9:02 pm
“The coolest thing about Google TV is that we don’t even know what the coolest thing about it will be.”
Google TV
