‘Muddy Boots’, Google vs. Yahoo September 29, 2008

Muddy Boots Image

Google gives more relevant results by showing approximately 142,000 different images with the tags ‘Muddy Boots’. Yahoo however, only provides 3,716 images with that tag. Therefore, Google yields much better results. Both Google and Yahoo both are very easy to navigate through at the bottoms and through different advanced search options.

Both Google and Yahoo provide options of ‘Advanced Search’. They both allow filter options by size, color, type of site it comes from or specific site it comes from, keywords, in part or in whole, and with a safe search.

I personally prefer Google over Yahoo because I use it more often and are much more familiar with the site.

Muddy Boots Video

When searching for ‘Muddy Boots’ video, Google provided approximately 480 different videos and Yahoo only gave 5. Yahoo has better navigation because there are only 5 videos, whereas Google has so many to choose from. However, I still prefer using Google solely based on the fact of familiarity.

Work is taking over people’s lives in the 21st century. September 29, 2008

Nowadays, people cannot get away from their work.  A recent article on CNN talked about how more and more Americans cannot leave work at work anymore.  Even on vacations, people are constantly checking their blackberrys instead of just relaxing.  When people do not have service and cannot access their work, they’re not able to just sit back and enjoy themselves. 49% of people say that technology has made it too hard for them to leave their work behind when they get home and it is affecting their personal lives.

However, some people think it is just high earners that are having difficult times because their work is ‘more important’.  I think technology is very interesting and beneficial, however I do not like it to the point where I cannot function without it.  I myself have experienced the phantom ringing numerous times and it bothers me that I am so connected with my cell phone.  While technology has so many benefits, I think some people take it way too far.

A new, easier way to break into cars. September 29, 2008

If it wasn’t easy enough to break into cars the old-fashioned way, the Japanese are making it even easier for criminals to steal cars.  In Japan, a cell phone was designed by Sharp Corp. to automatically unlock doors and start the engines without using an ignition key.  There is a chip in the phone and the car and when the phone gets close enough to the car, it automatically unlocks the doors and starts the car.

While in order to move the actual car you need the key, it is still not hard to hotwire a car by professionals.  Potential theives will obviously know what the cell phones look like, and can attempt to steal them from people.  This is rare to happen with matching up the right cell phone with the right car, but if someone wants to steal a car bad enough, it’s not too difficult to orchestrate.

I also think that this is a bad decision because people lose and break cell phones so frequently.  They are also really expensive without car chips in them so people would be emptying their pockets with these phones every time they lose or break them.

This is a huge advance for technology, however a poor decision for people’s pockets and safety.

MySpace Music searching for funding… September 18, 2008

In reports, MySpace Music is supposedly looking for another big name player to help advertise their music label.  Currently, McDonald’s, State Farm, Toyota, and Sony Pictures have partnered with the MySpace Music label for advertisers however, they want one more to sign on.  Their music label wants to gain another partner that can contribute $100 million towards MySpace Music to have a total of around $2 billion in supporters.  This has not been confirmed nor denied as a rumor yet.

I’d say personally with the four companies they have now they’re in good hands and can launch whatever they need to at this point in time, however they do not agree and need another $100 million for some reason? I’m sure there is perfectly good reason as to why they need that specific amount, therefore power to them!

Ludacris’ Fantasy?? September 18, 2008

When Ludacris wrote ‘What’s Your Fantasy’ he probably didn’t even have a fantasy of YouTube in the realm of his thoughts.  Today however, that is exactly what his mind is thinking about.  In, ‘The next showcase for new music?‘, Ludacris announces that to create ‘buzz’ for his upcoming CD, he is going to be playing the songs along with a picture of himself on YouTube.  The music videos will not be played because he wants the listener to visualize for themselves what the actual song is portraying.

Other artists are beginning to do this as well.  Instead of YouTube strictly being a video site, musicians are playing their music along to pictures of themselves or black screens to let their fans feel the way they want to feel without bias.  YouTube was also selected because of how easy it is to use, how it only takes a few seconds to find what you’re looking for and play/listen to it.  Mass advertising, what could be better?

iPhone apps here, there, everywhere… September 18, 2008

Apparently on the new iPhone, you can download up to 148 applications to your 9 different homescreens.  I think that screams: clutter! But to some I guess not? Now because people are downloading so many iPhone applications, there has been numerous bloggings on ‘How To: Delete your Apps.’ (How to: Delete iPhone apps).  While yes, there should be a page telling you step-by-step directions for those who thought they’d enjoy a certain application or two and found out they didn’t, these instructions are for those whom are crazy about them and attempt to download hundreds.  Since people don’t want to permanently delete these apps but still want more than 148, a page called the Phantom Zone had to be created to ‘push them onto a hidden 10th page’.

I currently have an iPhone and I have 3 pages, with are not even close to being full, I just wanted to be organized.  With those 3 pages I feel extremely bothered if I have to take the time to find an app I want to use that I have placed on the last page.  Now if I had to memorize the placements of applications on 9 different pages I’d go crazy, IMO.

The fall of iTunes? I think not… September 18, 2008

In the article, Best Buy to buy Napster for $121 million, Best Buy is planning on buying Napster, the digital music website for $121 million in cash to try to take away some of iTunes market share.  iTunes currently has over 70% of market share and they want to join forces to try to help Napster take some of that away.  This article is very interesting in the sense that I never thought that anyone would ever be able to take down iTunes and their market share by even a little bit.  Maybe if more companies were involved it would be more plausible, but Napster, which already has a negative feeling associated with their name does not seem like they could really make an impact on iTunes.  I am a loyal iTunes fan and also a loyal Best Buy fan, however, I do not think even with cheaper music, I’d switch over to Napster.  With having my iPhone, iTunes makes downloading music onto my phone as simple as pie and I would not want to deal with another music site if I wanted to make my library bigger.

The end of facebook? September 8, 2008

This weekend I had read an article about a potential facebook application that poses as the ‘Picture of the Day’ and when clicked and added, sends hundreds of gigabytes of malicious data a day to the site.  Ultimately, this much malicious data will eventually destroy facebook after some time.  I thought this was a very interesting piece because so many of us students are on facebook, and we all have numerous applications.  Of the applications we have, I’m sure not many of us did research to see if they were legitimate or not and this could potentially effect us.

This article pertains to all of us in the class because majority of us students are on facebook, if not all.  We have to make sure that everything we do online is safe so we don’t accidentally give away important information or add something that could potentially be ‘dangerous’ to our internet activity.  We must be careful so facebook doesn’t get torn down!

Google Chrome September 3, 2008

I read this wired post about the new Google Chrome web browser.  The article stated that Google accidentally released their new browser on September 1, 2008 with cartoon writeups.  The new browser is going to be available for Windows users first, with Mac following soon after.  With the launching of this new browser, Firefox is nervous because it is stated that Google funds most of Firefox’s web browser.  Google Chrome is supposed to be much faster, have several tabs working at once to get more work accomplished in less time, and a much safer browsing experience.

I thought this to be very interesting because Google is such a powerful name so it is definitely going to give other browsers a run for their money regardless of the information people know about the product from brand recognition.

This article applies to this class because it is technology based and something us students will most likely be using in the near future! (Including myself )

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