BuzzRun.com

Google annouced they can now deliver real time status and info on your flights directly on the search results page (Google.com). Just type the name of the airline and flight number (e.g. American 123, ua226) into the search box, and they’ll return the most up to date information from FlightStats.com. Pretty cool and a HUGE timesaver … especially for those of us that spend ten minutes looking on an airlines website for the flight status information area.

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Here’s a interesting read from ZDNet on using Wordpress versus a standard “clunky” CMS. He’s got some good points and really nails-down the “IT geek”.

Story:

In Scott Karp’s overall discussion asking whether blogs can do journalism–I think it’s all the same and chances are techies don’t care anyway–he touches on blogs partially being a function of their Web-native content management systems. Blogs, often delivered via WordPress, have built-in advantages over content management systems such as RSS feeds, comments, trackbacks and inline links.

And when it comes to ease of use, a blog platform beats or average CMS hands down. So why have I been stuck with so many clunky CMS systems over the years? There’s a host of reasons, but most of these afflictions come from strange IT management practices.

At ZDNet we use WordPress for blogs, but in previous positions I’ve almost always had some custom built creation that usually stinks. Sure, these CMS systems may have started out as standard, but sooner or later they turn into this Frankenstein creation. And lookout below if the guy that cooked up the code ever leaves. If there’s an open source option that has rich features why would you spend time building the same thing?

One theory I have is that there’s some secret “developer full-time employment act” that means these programmers have to do something even if it’s just replicating work that’s already been done. Kind of like New Jersey where every gas station is full serve (that had to be some full employment gambit back in the day).

Part of this “let’s build our own CMS” disease comes from your typical not-invented-here management practices. Here’s how this plays out: Geeks get together with media folks that like to pretend they know technology. Then they haggle over requirements, which typically resemble things already out there. But these folks enjoy reinventing the wheel. Then they miss deadlines. In the end, they only to build something that you could get via WordPress–if you’re lucky.

More …

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So it appears that other large news media companies are finally seeing through the crap that CNN puts out of their “so-called” news channel.

The Los Angeles Times publishes a story regarding CNN’s “self serving agenda … set for the Republican debates”.

Read it for yourself here.

A person is blind if they cannot see CNN’s political agenda.

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Startup doctoc (competitor to startup scribd) is giving away a free iPod Touch every week this month to the user that uploads the most documents each week.

Since the sites launch last week, they say they’ve “had thousands of documents uploaded”.

Sign up to get started, but you’ll have some work to do in order to catch up with ‘ryryslide‘ who’s got some 15,600+ docs uploaded (geez dude, got time on your hands?). You can see how you’re doing in real time by following this link and you can read more about the contest here.

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Thought you might find this interesting … how Google got it’s name:

Stanford student Sean Anderson was the guy who gave Larry Page the name of his search engine and company:

Sean and Larry were in their office, trying to think up a good name — something that related to the indexing of an immense amount of data. Sean verbally suggested the word “googolplex,” and Larry responded verbally with the shortened form, “googol.” Sean was seated at his computer terminal, so he executed a search of the Internet domain name registry database to see if the newly suggested name was still available for registration and use. Sean is not an infallible speller, and he made the mistake of searching for the name spelled as “google.com,” which he found to be available.

Where does Sean currently work? Microsoft.

Who owns googol.com? Surprisingly not Google.

[majority via]

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The AP reports that as part of a proposed settlement to a class-action suit Sprint Nextel has agreed to provide customers with the code necessary to unlock their phones, after they’ve finished the service and paid their bills. Sprint won’t have to pay financial damages under the terms of the settlement. Considering people have to pay out the contract—which is justified as necessary to subsidise the mobile phones— this is something all reasonable carriers should do.

The settlement, which is awaiting final approval by a Superior Court judge in Alameda County, CA, would allow the phones to operate on any CDMA network, including Verizon and Alltel here in U.S. The codes will not work on Nextel-branded phones made by Motorola that use the iDen protocol (do people still have Nextel phones?). Nor will the codes enable customers to switch to AT&T or T-Mobile, of course, as they are GSM based.

NYTimes: The company will also add information about the unlocking codes as part of the terms and conditions of service given to new customers and will instruct its customer service representatives on connecting a non-Sprint phone to the Sprint network.

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I’ve been using compete.com for several months now and really enjoy the site’s features for keeping tabs on my competition. I got an email from them this morning annoucing the official launch of their new Search Analytics which they say allows users to:

• Identify new relevant keywords for possible bids
• Learn competitor’s search strategies
• Track performance of specific keywords against competitors
• Find the search terms that drive the most engaged visitors

You can give it a try for yourself by visiting searchanalytics.compete.com … sign up or take a tour.

“Using just a credit card to activate the service, a marketer at any size company, with any level of search marketing experience, can immediately benefit from the new Web-based resource that delivers the industry’s richest search analytics on a revolutionary pay-as-you-go basis.”

Looks like they’ve given me (and trial users) 10 credits free to give the Search Analytics a test run. Thanks … will do!

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Na … ya think?

That’s eBay for ya, at the time. I mean hey, they were sitting pretty with a ton of money in the bank  - so who’da’thunk it that this “brand new technology” wouldn’t turn our to be as profitable as they initially thought.

Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom has said that he agrees the original valuation for the VoIP company as put on by purchaser eBay was too high.

Zennstrom, who remained Skype CEO since the buyout, recently resigned from that role in Oct 1st … perhaps seeing the writing on the wall.

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For a number of years, a large group of Google engineers have been working in secret on a mobile phone project. The unknown project name has sperd curiousity and names like Google Phone and GPhone have been spreading around the Net like Apples iPhone hype prior to hitting the streets. But the GPhone is not likely to be the second coming of the iPhone — and Google’s goals are very different from Apple’s - it’s called “MOBILE ADVERTISING”.

“The cost of those phones may be partly subsidized by advertising that appears on their screens.”

Interesting! I see free phones in the future for those how not only would agree to see ads on their phone, but I’m sure that with Google Radio Ads, there will be something in this project that would require the user to hear an ad prior to making a call or after (if they haven’t thought of that yet, then ATTN: Google - please send me a check for $5 Million dollars for that idea (a small price to pay considering the money it will make you).

Read the full story on NYTimes here.

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Steve Ballmer’s plans for the computer software giant include taking on Yahoo! and Google in their own internet territor.

Steve Ballmer doesn’t do half-measures. The veteran Microsoft chief executive says that he relaxes by running, playing golf and seeing his children “and the other 18 hours of the day I work”.

Moments later, the dynamo charged with steering the 30-year-old software giant through an increasingly complicated middle age actually raises his voice to a yell as he maps out his blueprint for Microsoft’s future.

“It gives us the chance to surprise shareholders,” he shouts of his plan to transform Microsoft into an advertising company. He leans forward and raises his voice several decibels as he hits “surprise”. The soundbite is delivered in the manner you might expect of a man whose behaviour PC Magazine said - approvingly - “borders on the maniacal”.

But there looks to be clear thinking behind Mr Ballmer’s strategy: Microsoft, often criticised for not spotting the web’s potential early enough, must catch Google, the runaway leader in online advertising and the king of internet search. Mr Ballmer has just bet $6 billion on that aim, through the acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company that specialises in targeting online campaigns to individual consumers. The deal is Microsoft’s largest to date. Mr Ballmer, 51, says that it “proves his commitment” to making Microsoft a true advertising powerhouse (it is languishing in third place behind Yahoo! and Google). “We’re going to keep coming and coming,” he says. “I think everybody would like to see – in advertising and search – Google get some competition.”

Read the full story …

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