Twitter Introduces Profile Search Feature

Twitter has pushed out a new feature dubbed “Profile Search“. This new features adds a search bar to your profile page, allowing you to search for like minded users.

The new search function allows users to search across information such as name, location, bio and url. This is intended to help users find other ‘like minded‘ individuals to follow. For instance, I did a search for ‘Ohio‘. As it turns out, there are 690 Twitter users who have Ohio listed as their location in their Twitter profile. That’s nothing compared to the 1,930 Twitter users who live in California which is then trumped by New York with 2,155 people. Just for giggles, I searched for ‘web 2.0‘ which netted me 277 results.

So now, instead of randomly following people and claiming them to be your friend, use the search tool to find Twitter users with similar interests.

Site Scrutiny – Scrutinizing In Style

SiteScrutiny.com is a brand new blog dedicated to reviewing and sharing some of the coolest, most useful sites on the net. Some of his latest reviews include Preezo, Open Source Web Design, and Agatra.

SiteScrutiny is maintained by John Kolbert, the webmaster of Simply-Basic.com which on an unrelated note, has a very nice looking design. As I provide you with a ton of crap in my reviews, John writes about the goods and discards the crap. His articles are to the point and contain insightful opinions, not to mention the design surrounding the content is easy on the eyes.

This blog is in it’s infancy, but it’s already looking good. Remember John, if you blog it, they will come. So SiteScrutiny, welcome to my Up and Coming section in my FeedReader.

Happy Birthday WordPress.com

Can you believe that WordPress has only been around for two years? It’s true. Back on August 20th, 2005 the first blog on WordPress.com was created, that being Matt’s blog. I didn’t know this but, invitations for the WordPress.com beta were sold on ebay for as much as $90.00 Check out these insane stats that Matt published concerning what has been accomplished over the past year:

Created 50,334 blogs
Added 269,035 static pages
Tagged 715,905 tags on posts
Gotten 920,363 comments
Written 678,842 posts
Had 96,095,493 pageviews!

Wow, that’s what I call user generated! I’ve only used the stand alone WordPress CMS for a few months now, but it’s been the best damn CMS I have ever used. It’s been a pleasure to work with and it’s one of the only systems I’ve used where everything seems simple. So I’d like to take this oppurtunity to thank Matt and his crew for this awesome piece of software, and to wish everyone involved with WordPress a Happy 2nd Birthday.

Also, if WordPress.com is indeed getting the same amount of traffic as Facebook.com chances are, WP.com will see birthdays 3, 4, and 5!

Slikstr Is Hiring – Whats Slikstr?

Slikstr.com has an opening available in their NYC office for a Creative Outreach Director. What that person is in charge of doing is beyond me, but it sounds important. Instead of posting a job opening on Monster.com, Slikstr has published a YouTube video asking whomever wants to apply to send them a video response which would be their resume. Here ya go.

So what the heck is Slikstr?

Slikstr is the worlds first user created company. They are creating the next generation of Web 2.0 technologies by directly reaching out to their users and basing much of their decision making on “the wisdom of crowds”. They recently closed a first round of private equity funding and they are developing their website for beta testing later this year. The company is headquartered in New York City and is privately held.

Sounds to me like this could be one heck an online Web 2.0 reality show. Here is a YouTube video response from someone who is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, hoping to get the job.

While watching the first video, did you feel as if it was shot sometime during the 80s? It seemed like a pretty cheesy looking job opening advertisement. For the woman who wants the job, do you think she’ll get it? If she does, will you be watching her generated video content?

Skype Blaming Redmond For Outage

After initially telling users that the downtime experienced last week was due to an authentication glitch, Skype is now blaming Microsoft for the downtime. Here is the supposedly real reason why their service went down:

“The disruption was initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine software update.” This is presumably the Windows updates that were sent out on Patch Tuesday last week, which required the PC to be restarted.

“The abnormally high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources,” the company adds. “This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.”

Maybe it’s just me, but this seems like a lame excuse. Come on guys, Microsoft can’t be blamed for everything. This excuse sounds like something those guys from The Onion would cook up.

WordPress Real Time Browsing Stats

Ever wanted to see who is browsing your site in detail and in real time? Now you can, using WordPress Live, a live blog statistics plugin.

WordPress Live gives WordPress site owners the ability to track IP addresses currently browsing the site while also being able to view which posts/pages that IP address is browsing. The plugin divides stats into three categories: Page hits, Feed hits, and Comments. There is actually a speed bar which allows you to control the speed in which the plugin refreshes. Move the slider to the left, the refresh is quicker, move the slider to the right, the refresh rate is slower.

This plugin is really cool and from what I could tell, is only accessible through the backend of your WordPress install. If you’d like a plugin which displays a similar set of data on the frontend, check out the WP-UserOnline 2.11 plugin written by Lester Chan.

The only downfall WordPress Live has is the lack of documentation. The plugin lacked a read me file and there are no concrete installation instructions published on the authors site. If your familiar with how to install WordPress plugins, you shouldn’t have a problem with this one.

WordPress Live In Action

Be sure to check out Headzoo.com to download the WordPress Live Plugin. So far, I’m digging it.

Space Shuttle Liftoff As Seen From Above

These images may not be new to you since they have been in circulation since 2006 in viral emails. However, these images are new to me and I thought I’d share them since they have yet to grace the front page of this site. These two images were taken in 2006 by a WB-57 chase plane Initially, it was thought that these images were taken from the ISS or International Space Station, but it turns out that was simply a rumor. At any rate, enjoy!

Space Shuttle As Seen From Near Space

Shuttle Image Number 2

Oceans Eleven Text Animation

I thought this was very well done. A video clip of text animation coinciding with the directions on how to rob the bank.

And if that weren’t enough, heres another one featuring Obadiah Parker’s covering Outkast’s “Hey Ya!”, Brian Shaler

Web 1.0 And Web 2.0 Visual Differences

Sizlopedia has published an article which highlights the visual differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0. These differences are illustrated using a translated graphic, which simply shows how webmasters used to manage their website, compared to how webmasters of today manage their sites.

Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Visual Difference

The following questions were asked near the end of this article, Do you like the evolving web culture? Do you think that web 2.0 has helped users get more interactive or do you think it is just a propaganda term created to wipe out the old web standards?

I think web 2.0 has created a ton of opportunities. Ideas are turning into reality for many people and because of web 2.0, the barrier to entry is practically nil. Of course, the barrier to entry or lack thereof could be considered a drawback.

At any rate, I think social-networking is out of control and we are being deluged in web 2.0 startups on a daily basis. I think it will alright though, considering the market aka userbase will determine which of these startups stick around for the long haul, or which ones will die off.

Be sure to read Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0: The Visual Difference

Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff

The Musings Of Jeff Chandler

Month: August 2007