TekTidbits

WisdomTap Makes Comparison Shopping Easy - Adds Spice to Consumer Electronics Sites

India-based WisdomTap has created a wonderful new way for power shoppers to make sure they are choosing the right product; Wisdom Rank.  Consumer retail stores who integrate this technology will save their customers hours of shopping, gasoline, and "shoe-leather".  

The core of this technology is a powerful XML-based engine that combs the latest and greatest blogs, expert sites, and social networks for product specific information, then sorts it by recency, relevance, and the strength of the source.  This is shown as a Wisdom Rank - with better products ranking higher than weaker products. 

This technology is offered both as a downloadable widget, and in a more sophisticated, customizable API form.  Either will serve to keep valuable customers on the site, provide them with credible information, and enhance SEO/SEM by providing keyword rich content. 

For example, the downloadable widgets look like this: 

  

 

When a site visitor clicks on the specific product name, he or she then can access ALL of the contents plus the weblinks from whence they came - broken down by categories such as Expert, Bright Light, Portrait, etc.   For example, here are the expert opinions on the Nikon d300 dx:

 

 

Each shows a simple thumbs up or thumbs down as well. 

 

WisdomTap plans to extend this technology into other areas in the future, but for now, it covers digital cameras and lenses, and cell phones.  What a great way to increase site conversions and drive new traffic to your site! 

 

You can sign up for a free trial at http://services.wisdomtap.com/ .   Personally, I hope it gets deployed for automobiles, car shopping is a real hassle. 

Now, Men Can Get Directions Without Letting Their Wives Know

Google has announced that it is bringing its famous map function to a gas pump near you.  That means that all you males out there (and I must admit that even though I am female, I have trouble asking for directions in front of anyone) can get directions without embarrassment. 

Just tell your significant other you need to stop for gas, punch in the address, and voila - there it is!

A new partnership between Google and gas pump maker Veeder-Root will soon make printed directions possible from many pumps around the US.   

Just act like you had the Google print out all the time, and they will never know the difference.   

A Review of TopUSAOnlineCasinos.com

Another site that reviews casinos that accept US players is TopUSAOnlineCasinos.com. This site features reviews by top players that are all easily accessible on the home page of the site.

The top United States online casinos are listed in rank order (for the first ten), with links to the full review and a link to each casino in a list format. The table featured on this page includes the pay out percentage, rank, and bonus given - all useful information if you are looking for the best and most trustworthy online casino!  Download links are also given if a casino requires you to download additional software. 

The site design itself is rather simplistic, with a typical photo banner at the top in patriotic colors.  However, the site navigation is very clearcut, and it is easy to find the information you need to choose the casino that is right for you.

The reviews themselves are well done, and include a trust factor, information on the security certificate, a ranking for their customer service, and any other key features that may make the casino more attractive.

There is a separate page for online sports book sites - at present, they only recommend two.  There is also a separate page for online poker rooms that doesn't quite seem to be working yet - but I am sure they will address this soon.

This looks like a great site to use when selecting a trustworthy online casino with good odds and quick payouts!

[Paid post for Smorty.com] 

Secure Ecommerce Software

One of the biggest concerns that online merchants have when adding an ecommerce software solution to a website is security. Site customers have to trust YOU with their credit card or Paypal information.  It pays to shop around to find a provider that gives you peace of mind.

Ashop Commerce offers a complete, turnkey shopping cart for your website or web-based business with a full suite of security features.  Their solution offers full 128-bit SSL encryption as a standard offering, which is the highest security available for credit card processing today. This advanced security protocol protects both checkouts and administration.  Each store administration panel also has multilevel password protection to keep your internal personnel from accessing sensitive information.

CVC security code support is also offered, and security monitoring is provided at the server for added peace of mind.

For an additional fee, you can also subscribe to Maxmind Fraud protection - a service that checks every order and generates a potential "fraud" score.  Information entered by the customer is checked against their IP address - and high risk IP addresses and email addresses are flagged so that you can check with the customer directly to make sure this is a legitimate order.   

How to Find a Trustworthy Online Casino

One of the most lucrative markets for new web technology has been online gaming, and many casinos have "gotten into the game", so to speak. There are literally thousands upon thousands of online casinos available, and some of the biggest complaints lodged against some of them are unfair odds and slow payouts. 

Pro360.com provides gamers with full and extensive reviews of the top online casinos, including a "Trust" factor. This includes a Fair Play rating which is a measure of whether or not the computer is set to always win, or if gaming follows at least the odds you would have in a typical "brick and mortar" casino.  If you want to find a secure online casino, Pro360.com will help increase your comfort level.

There is a Security rating also, which is a measure of how secure your financial data is during a transaction online, and the security certificate used is listed. 

Most important to gamers is the Payout rating, which is a measure of how fast they actually pay out your winnings.

Players can vote on this site, and votes are tabulated into a Player Rating.  Other ratings cover the quality of graphics, how fast the games operate, selection of games, and types of bonuses available.

If you have wanted to enter the exciting world of online gaming but have been concerned about security issues or trustworthiness of the sites, now there is a resource to help.   

[Paid post through Smorty.com]

An Easy Way to Add a Shopping Cart to Your Site

I have recently been looking for a shopping cart solution for this site as a China-based manufacturer has just offered me a great deal on some wonderful little wireless gadgets - and as all my readers know, I just LOVE wireless gadgets! 

I came across a wonderful solution from Ashop Commerce that is fully turnkey, and doesn't force me to do a lot of coding.  Ashop takes most major credit cards as well as Paypal, and offers four levels of service; Starter,Advanced, Professional, and Enterprise. 

The starter package features a 10 day free trial, and all packages come with SMS alerts - a useful feature for me as I have a "day job" and am pretty constantly on the go. Security is no issue either, as they offer 128 bit SSL security encoding.

The starter package at $69/month is pretty impressive, and offers more than many pricier options.  This package includes 5GB/month bandwidth, 50MB web space, a fully customizable store front, SEO optimization, and support for up to 500 products.  I am probably going to only start with 10 products, so this is ideal for me and offers room for expansion.

The Professional and Enterprise classifications offer B2b support, support for affliate programs, and the highest classification has support for up to 5,000 products.  Wow!

Ashop commerce also offers ala carte services, such as logo design, web design, flash animation, and optional live customer support for your store. 

As soon as I get the details ironed out with my supplier, you can check here for some really cool wireless gadgets, AND the Ashop shopping cart. 

(Paid post for Ashop Commerce) 

   

 

Criteo Launchs BlogRoll Beta - Using Its New Recommendation Engine Technology

Paris based Criteo, a startup that has an exciting new recommendation engine, has created a wonderful widget for those of us in the blogosphere.  The Autoroll is a widget that displays other blogs that have an affinity to your blog.  It is installed on this blog, but as it is in beta testing, only those who have it also installed can see it.

This blogroll is different from most, as it uses Criteo's proprietary collaborative filtering technology to make sure the blogs shown have a high affinity to your blog, and vice versa. This means the Autoroll will generate highly relevant new visitors to your site.

As one of the beta testers, I am quite pleased with the reporting module which provides statistics on site visitors and click-throughs in real time.

Autoroll is fully configurable with respect to colors and size, and as it presents similar blogs to yours, it should be of great use to your site visitors. 

If you are a blogger and want to take part in this beta release to give feedback to Criteo, simply visit this link:  http://widget.criteo.com/

A comprehensive FAQ has been provided by Criteo for all beta testers.

Autoroll has been tested on blogs created with Typepad, Wordpress, Blogger, Blogspirit, and DOTClear.

This great widget appears to be just a small sample of what Criteo's collaborative filtering technology can do - applications from IPTV to Ecommerce abound for this startup.  Stay tuned to see what Criteo will do next.

technorati tags: predictive collaboration, predictive filtering, Web 2.0, technology, blogroll, predictive blogroll, criteo, autoroll, blog promotion, blog widget, technology, web technology
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YouTube Announces Upcoming Revenue Share Plan

YouTube is an American success story, and it is about to again be thrust in the limelight with the upcoming addition of revenue sharing with its users. 

At this week's World Economic Forum, YouTube founder Chad Hurley told the world that the video sharing company plans to open up a revenue model for its users in the coming months.

Given the recent acquisition of YouTube by Google, it makes sense that the revenue sharing program would have something to do with Google Adwords.  It is also possible that YouTube may allow videos to be posted with a pay-per-download model similar to that offered by Pangea. 

No matter what YouTube chooses as a revenue share, it is certain to be welcomed by many.

technorati tags: youtube, google, google ad words, revenue sharing, video revenue sharing
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Will Web 2.0 Office Suites Make MS Office Obsolete?

The process of creating, PDF'ing, and emailing a spreadsheet or Word document is as ingrained in business culture as is the speaker phone - however, you have to admit it is a cumbersome process.

Web 2.0 based applications promise to free us from this multistep process by allowing web-based applications to create documents that live on the web, not email.

These applications are in their infancy right now so I don't think this will happen soon.

But when it does, the Mighty Microsoft will have to adapt or go the way of the horse and buggy manufacturers of yesteryear.

For example, Intel has just announced a new Web 2.0 Office based suite, called SuiteTwo, that will feature blogging, RSS feeds from Newsgator, a Wiki, and search tools.  The Early Stage VC blog announces that Ajax based office products are everywhere, and that web based applications make more sense as we are not desktop bound workers anymore.  Aptly named Thinkfree has a full suite of online Microsoft compatible office products available now as well. They offer a free teaser of 1Gb storage. 

Zimbra has been profiled in many blogs, and is also gaining ground with their office suite that includes VoIP, email, and web-based document creation and sharing.

Microsoft, the writing is on the wall....er, should I say Window?

technorati tags: zimbra, thinkfree, intel, microsoft, Microsoft Office, Web 2.0, online office suites, online office suite, free office suite, alternatives to MS Office
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Join the Internet Amateur Film Craze

The folks at Reallusion in Silicon Valley have really done it - they have created a 3-d animated filmmaking environment known as iClone that lets real people create storyboarded animated films with pro quality!

Release 1.5 has just been announced which includes:

1. A pixel shader which enhances 3-D effects in real time.  A partial list of new effects includes:

- bump map
- normal map
- reflection (environmental map)
- alpha channel (opacity map)
- self-cast shadow (nVidia only)
- vertex color
- UV texture animation
- particle effects

2. New content that includes new textures, a 3d blocks and architectural system for building sets, and a 3d billboard

3. A new motion editor that allows your characters to exhibit realistic joint movement, etc.

Now, YOU can make your own movie or animated series and post it to YouTube and see what happens.  Hollywood - Smollywood - who needs to wait for you!

Here is an example of a small film created in iClone that has been nominated for several awards:

technorati tags: technology, animation, animation software, Reich and Roll, iClone, Reallusion, home animation, movie creation, YouTube, animated movies, movie technology, animation technology, animation software
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