Bloggle

Jim's daily roundup // Digg

Today, according to Jim:

Google Knol opens for business (Bloggle appears on Techmeme AGAIN); Facebook speculation is in the air as the social networking site holds its annual developers conference; Google to buy Digg rumours continue, people wonder what game google are playing.

Not much Bloggle news today, but watch out tomorrow for the first Bloggle comic 'Search Engine Purity' based upon the excelled xckd 435 (thanks to Randall Munroe at xckd for allowing me to post it). Some lucky subscribers may have got a sneak peak (you lucky people)...but for everyone else, tomorrow all will be revealed at about 16:00 GMT, 12:00 EDT, 9:00 PDT. The clock is ticking.

p.s don't get your hopes up too much

Google Knol launches. Woot.

Today after months of testing, Google Knol launched. Apparently we're to call it Knol though (not Google Knol). Interesting the page lacks a Google logo and even has the phrase 'Who needs a search engine? CTRL+F' on it.

Interesting line for Google to take don't you think?

Like Wikipedia, Knol allows anyone to create a page about any topic, however new pages are set to use 'moderated collaboration' meaning that any revisions and additions must be approved by the page author before they are published.

There can even be multiple pages about the same topic. The Official Google Blog says:

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

I think that is probably bad.

For more on the ins and outs of how Knol works and what it means for Google, head over to Search Engine Land or TechCrunch.

Jim's daily roundup // MacBookTouch

Today according to Jim:

Google Maps added walking directions (Bloggle, Search Engine Land); rumours surface that Apple could be about to announce a MacBook Touch (incredible?!); Yahoo miss their earnings estimate (surprise, surprise); Google Reader doesn't add new feature.

Google Reader now shows the original page? - Actually no

This may be old news. But its new to me and that, loyal reader, is what counts.

So I noticed just now that clicking a post title in Google Reader brings up the post in its original format. New? I don't know. Do you? I've contacted someone to find out what they. We await their reply!

If it's new (and to be honest I don't care that much) it is a truly great addition. It works very smoothly and quickly and I for one salute the developers who have made this change whether today or months ago.

Jim's update: In an astonishing twist, Dave has made a complete fool of himself because it turns out that this functionality is due to a Greasemonkey script that he amazingly posted about a few days ago. And no, this really wasn't a ploy to bring up that post again..it was a terrible and ridiculous error. Would have been clever though wouldn't it?

Why not subscribe for more hilarious mistakes?

Google Maps launches walking directions

I was informed via a post over at Search Engine Roundtable that Google Maps now has walking directions!

It seems that a few weeks ago there were signs that this was happening for a few users, but I see it now and I assume everyone else does too, since I never get into any of these betas.

Remember: be careful when walking in unfamiliar areas.