I really love when Orkut adds some features, because I reside in it. It is not the best social network when it comes to express your feeling to whole world but it is a great way to communicate withing your known group. And more importantly I have nearly all my friends on it.
Coming on the new feature...
Image is self explanatory, but to mention it is only in communities, and not on your profiles. So this raises a question, why didn't they made it universal? Though the logic is simple but still it could have been placed in profiles also.
Now coming on interface...
Its is very simple and all on same blue background. You can place unlimited options, go for multiple checks, get instant results(in green bars...different from all blue), You get it on the main page of your community. As such there is nothing bad in interface, and is a good addition all in all.
So now on enjoy polling on Orkut.

Update...
I discovered yet another feature on Orkut, its kind of a mix feature using Google Toolbar. You get a search icon for your google toolbar to search your friends and communities in Orkut. I dont know whether this is a firefox only option or is also for Google toolbar in Internet Explorer. But once again Google is doing which I will call as consolidation of services and bridging them together.
Do you have any prediction for any new bridge.

Consolidation, this has been the mantra for people at google for while, at least it seems from viewer angle. Gtalk with Orkut, then Orkut+Youtube, Reader+Blogger, and now Blogger+Picasaweb.
This time also they have done it nicely and it was a long felt need. I, always wanted to retrieve images I uploaded to blogger for posts and wondered where they went after I uploaded them, and now they have solved both of my problems. They have integrated both the platforms together. You can see all your photos which you uploaded on your blog on your Picasaweb page with a Blogger B logo on them. And them from there, you can use them for reposting.
This is still not done they can also make Picasweb a hub for my photos on Orkut, and can make them more secure.
There is one more thing which Google have added on Picasaweb, and that is community photo search. This now brings it in lines of Flickr, but still it is not very networking friendly, as you still dont have a single window kind of thing to view your favorites photos. But they are improving and that too on fast pace, and more importantly this king kong size organization is going for consolidation.

I have already mentioned, why I didn't posted any thing for such a long time over here. And here is my first storming post after the lull. First thing I did after returning was to get online, and after that I opened Google reader...to go on reading spree to read posts in excess of 4k. And as usual I started with web2.0 blogs, and incidentally I went to Mashable and found about Jabbits.
Jabbits is a new take on QnA, that revolves around video. We all will certainly agree that video is best way to convey a message, and QnA on video is indeed a nice idea. You ask question in form of a video, and receives answers in same form. As I am writing about it, a simple yet powerful struck to me, that is in distant teaching. Students fire there questions to group of teachers and get answers in return, and similarly teacher fires question and get solution from his students, all this in an organized manner.
As mentioned Pete Cashmore, on Mashable, they should look into providing widgets to embed in ones blog and various profiles. But one thing is for sure that innovative ideas revolving around user generated videos is a new trend, and will stay for long time.
But, yes a but, when it comes to QnA, I will still prefer Yahoo Answers, though Jabbit is ready to award me $100 for my good answers. Why I will stcik to Yahoo Answers is because it is simple. When it comes to anything user generated, lesser the numbers of steps to achieve some thing more usable it becomes. For example, lets compare erstwhile Hotmail and Gmail, Hotmail had one step in excess to read messages whereas Gmail takes you directly to all the mails. Coming back to QnA, creating video is not a one step process, its a multiple step process on Jabbit. If I have a question then I may want answer quickly, and that happens on Yahoo, you get answers quickly , sometimes within seconds. Then there is another problem when it comes to asking via video, people tend to go for explaining in excess, and then asking a simple question at the end... what it had done is, it kicked many viewers out of your site. In case of written questions your eyes somehow focus directly on key words and then if you like the queestion you answer it otherwise go for another question.
One more thing which bothers me is fake answers, how would I know that answer which I am just going to see is for real or some phony blot. They do provide for some written floats for answers but still I would love to have more. Because if I visit Jabbit on my bad day then I may never visit it again, and here Jabbit have done nothing wrong. They will pay for what their users have done.
Do I have a solution for this problem...Ok I will take my chance...
Use some sort of speech to text methodology, which will at least work for questions in english and then provide some thumb up-down option for questions and answers.
All said, I will still give it a try, not as a source to get valuable answers but for controlled use within my group, because in that way I will get best I can, and here it will certainly score lots of brownies over any conventional QnA site.
And as of site designing they have done some neat job, and use a nice color combination, such things by no mean are small, they matter a lot when thousands of users fall on your site on seconds basis.

I was out and that too without computer. I was not at a place where computer would not have worked, but I simply did not took my lapy with me. To mention I was at IIT Roorkee to take part in their techfest. And was that cool...that was awesome. Though I was down and out in most of the events in 1st stages itself, ( i was under prepared ) but enjoyed every bit of my stay over there.
I did two wrongs...
Forgot to took my camera with me.
Forgot to took my laptop.

And from next time I wont repeat this mistake.

And from today post will start as usual... if you came over here in the lull time, then I am really grateful to you.

I am under a tremendous hectic schedule, due to 2 reasons first the college studies and second a bot. I am currently involved in making a robot. Sorry... I am not going to write much now, but found it neccesary to update and tell all that the major updating will only take place after 26 of march.

Mein tech. blogger ban-na chahata hun! >>> I want to become a tech blogger.
If this is what you say after waking up one day, then...then nothing. You can certainly be one. For an example you can look to this very blog. Some times I post such bizarre posts that I feel shame after posting them...but I will still call my self a technology blogger, and would dump this fact down your throats every time you read this blog till the day you start believing that I am one GODY-GEEK Tech blogger, till the day you start believing every single word I will be writing no matter how much far those may be from neutrality. Currently richest bloggers are the tech blogger so if you are fed up with you job and ready to sit at home and write few idiotic lines on some very similar looking websites yes websites, but keep this word to your self as now a days people don't call websites websites but every thing other than website. If you don't know much about any technology, and is neither interested in latest in technology then also dont loose your hope, meadows out there are very green. What you need to do is just keep your eyes open and let the horses of your brain run wild. And then whatever comes to your mind, just write it down, and remember please don't sit for editing, editing is Oh! so old. Still if you dont know which way to go then just follow few links on this blog and slowly and slowly you will reach to the den of richest bloggers. And then you would realize that every thing else is nothing but mirror image of the rich fellows. What about GG, hey! at GG our motto is to think on ourselves and and never think again on what we just thought.
Once again lets come on our basic point, what if after doing everything you feel that you are still a cipher, simply go to http://scobleizer.com , over there a fat guy writes his blog who keeps on mentioning about his link blog, and is highly excited about every thing. Try to bring that excitement in your writing, then think about what technology is used in your flush and how can a social network be used for that, or why not use some twitter like service to mention the status of what you do before flushing, and then write it on twitter and then doubly write it on your blog while adding how twitter helped you to release your constipation. In single words, write write write about what you just read from the Rich men blogs, try to prove same point with some addition, which you will easily get from the left overs of other readers in form of comments, you can also add some thing from your self, you can always use your flush for help, the last step is important so as to prove that you are one individualistic writer. Then depending on amount of substance you copied from Rich men blogs, give a link to their site on your blog. Hey...there is also a rule behind this...if you have copied more than 200 words as it is, then there is no need to leave a backlink, as readers who by mistakingly fall on your blog will realize where the content is from. But ye sif you havent done so and if its about 50 to 100 words then leave a backlink, this will show how honest you are. Always remember 'Honesty is the best policy', and not expressing your honesty, i.e., not leaving a backlink, is not dishonesty. You will always get some easy things to write, they are known as social networks. Every other social network is sane to the previous one. You can always find a thing r two which wont be according o your liking and then you can just be cynical self and write as per your piped vision about that social network. And if you are finding any difficulty to trace new social networks , go to Mashable or Techcrunch they will ease lots of things for you (remember, those 100 words)
After 10 blog entries and subscribing to few blogs you will find your tech. blogging mojo, and then you can dream of becoming a Rich men, on your self.


In posts to come I will also mention, how I came into this world of tech blogging.

Top 100, I would die even before naming top 10. This is from Read/Write web, and compiled by Charles S. Knight. Its one of my favorite blogs all due to very cool'n'crisp analysis on it.
Here is what list looks like, I dont know most of the names from the list, but would surely have a look of them in times to come.To read complete analysis please visit here. They are going with such list as an monthly post, which I think is too frequent for such an category which does not show major changes as per one month time period is concerned. One more thing to note its not a list of conventional search engines but of alternative search engines. And the difference among two categories is very much same as in medicines and therapies.

AllTha.at	www.allth.at	The search engine that keeps on looking.
Ask Mobile	www.m.ask.com	Mobile search engine from Ask.com
ASK VOX	www.askvox.com	A second talking female user interface.
AnswerBus	www.answerbus.com	Ask in English, French, Spanish, German or Italian.
Blabline	www.blabline.com	Podcast / videocast search engine
blinkx	www.blinkx.com	Video Search
boing	www.boing.mobi	Search the Mobile web
bookmach.com	www.bookmach.com	Searches for posts related to your keywords.
ChaCha	www.chacha.com	Human Guides are available to aid in your search.
ClipBlast!	www.clipblast.com	Video Search
Clusty	www.clusty.com	Clustering search engine
collarity	www.collarity.com	Behavioral personalized search / Collarity Compass
CONGOO	www.congoo.com	Searches for Premium Content
crossEngine	www.crossengine.com	Searches Search Engines; formerly mrSAPO
d e c i p h o	www.decipho.com	Behavioral personalized search / Social Meter
Ditto	www.ditto.com	Visual search engine
Dogpile	www.dogpile.com	MetaSearch Engine
dumbfind	www.dumbfind.com	Featuring the Two-Box search method.
exalead	www.exalead.com/search	Web / Image search with a European flavor
factbites	www.factbites.com	Search Result snippets are complete sentences.
fazzle	www.fazzle.com	Search engine that emphasizes Boolean Search
filangy	www.filangy.com	Personalized Search Engine
FIND FORWARD	www.findforward.com	Multi-featured search engine; check this one out!
FindSounds	www.findsounds.com	Search for sound effects and musical samples.
FyberSearch	www.fybersearch.com	Parent site for some interesting new search engines.
GIGABLAST	www.gigablast.com	A multi-featured search engine.
girafa	www.girafa.com	Visual search engine - results are thumbnails
gnod	www.gnod.net	Oustanding recommendation search engines
gnosh	www.gnosh.org	Metasearch engine
GoLexa	www.golexa.com	"COMPLETE page analysis for each result."
goshme Beta 3.0	www.goshme.com	A search engine for search engines. Top 10 pick.
GoYams	www.goyams.com	Metasearch engine where you select the mix.
grokker	www.grokker.com	A multi-featured meta-search engine.
GRUUVE	www.gruuve.com	Groovy music recommendation search engine.
hakia	www.hakia.com	"Meaning based" search engine
ICEROCKET	www.icerocket.com	Blog search engine
ixquick	www.ixquick.com	Metasearch engine
KartOO	www.kartoo.com	Visually appealling clustering search engine
Lexxe	www.lexxe.com	Natural language processing (NLP) search engine
like	www.like.com	Visual shopping engine; see also riya
liveplasma	www.liveplasma.com	Attractive music / movies clustering / recommendation engine
Local.com	www.local.com	Search for local businesses, products, and services
lurpo	www.lurpo.com	Searches for custom Google search engines
mamma	www.mamma.com	metasearch engine
MetaGlossary	www.metaglossary.com	Searches for definitions, phrases and acronyms.
mnemomap	www.mnemo.org	Clustering search engine
Mojeek	www.mojeek.com	Customize your own personal search engine.
Mooter	www.mooter.com	Clustering search engine
mrquery	www.mrquery.com	Metasearch engine / metasearch providers
MS. DEWEY	www.msdewey.com	Unique user interface - enough said.
Omgili	www.omgili.com	Social community search engine
onkosh	www.onkosh.com	Arabic / English Search Engine
Pagebull	www.pagebull.com	Visual results search engine
pipl	http://pipl.com	People search engine
PlanetSearch	www.planetsearch.com	Metasearch engine
PolyMeta	www.polymeta.com	Metasearch and clustering search engine
pronto.com	www.pronto.com	Metasearch engine
qksearch	www.qksearch.com	Multi-featured "3-in-1" multi-search engine
Quintura	www.quintura.com	Clustering search engine with a new interface
Quintura for kids	http://kids.quintura.com/	Search engine for kids by Quintura
RedZee	www.redzee.com	Search Engine with nice preview results
retrievr	http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/	Visual search engine
riya	www.riya.com	Visual search engine; see also Like
scirus	http://scirus.com	Scientific information only search engine
searchbots	www.searchbots.net	Have a little fun, create your own searchbot.
SearchTheWeb2	www.searchtheweb2.com	Search The Popular Head and The Long Tail
sidekiq	www.sidekiq.com	Multi-category search engine. Very nice.
Slideshow	http://slideshow.zmpgroup.com/	Displays search results as a moving slideshow.
Slifter	www.slifter.com	A mobile shopping search engine.
soople	www.soople.com	A simplified version of Google's search options.
Speegle	www.speegle.com	The speeglebot talks to you.
Sphere	www.sphere.com	A blog search engine.
Sproose	www.sproose.com	Social search engine
S R C H R	www.srchr.com	Metasearch engine
SurfWax	www.surfwax.com	Meaning-based search engine
Swamii	www.swamii.com	Search engine that keeps on searching for you.
Swoogle	http://swoogle.umbc.edu	Semantic Web search engine
thefind.com	www.thefind.com	Shopping search engine
Trexy	www.trexy.com	Follow "trails" and "trailblazers" with Trexy.
turboscout	www.turboscout.com	Metasearch engine
TWERQ	www.twerq.com	Multi-category search engine with tabbed results.
UJIKO	www.ujiko.com	A fun interface where you can vote on the results.
url.com	www.url.com	"Search with many" community metasearch engine.
VMGO.com	www.vmgo.com	Vote on the search results with emoticons.
WASALive	www.wasalive.com	A new member of the list.
Web 2.0	www.web20searchengine.com	Web 2.0 search engines
WEBBRAIN	www.webbrain.com	Clustering "see the web" search engine.
whonu?	www.whonu.com	Deluxe metasearch engine.
WIKIO	www.wikio.com	"Live information from 33981 media and blogs"
Windows Live Mobile	www.wls.live.com	Windows Live Mobile search engine
WiseNut	www.wisenut.com	Clustering search engine
Yahoo! Mobile	http://m.yahoo.com	Yahoo! Mobile search engine
Yahoo! MINDSET	www.mindset.research.yahoo.com	Intention-driven search; commercial versus research
yoono	www.yoono.com	People-rated community web search
yoople	www.yoople.net	Yoople! = Yahoo! + Google + People
yubnub	www.yubnub.org	Use command lines to search the web.
ZABASEARCH	www.zabasearch.com	People and Public Information Search Engine.
zapmeta	www.zapmeta.com	Metasearch engine
Zippy	www.zippy.co.uk	Search engine for webmasters
ZUULA	www.zuula.com	Multi-category, multi-search engine, with good tabs.

If you want to suggest some more feel free to do so and if they have missed some thing outright then go RWW and mention it to them. Here you can find January's list.

This is second in the series of Poll Post, these are mini posts which simply ask a debatable question. The first one didn't got much response( in fact no response [;-(|] ) but you can go here to respond on that.
Coming on this one, there are few social networking options which are ready to help you increase you bank balance, like Revver, Dada.net etc. {Dada.net comes from Mashable}.
So what according to you is more important, money generation or social circle enlargement? And answer same from creators perspective. Reasoning will be encouraged!

This is a pre-holi news, and a big one. If blogospher is to be believed then( as I haven't found a direct Adobe link till yet) Adobe would be launching online Photoshop it any time in coming six months. This would surely be a toned down version, and might be very much like what is already available. When it comes to desktop photo editing Photoshop is a market leader, and it is quite clear that they want to use their name in online world. They would be taking on Google who is a currently a online app king. But I think Zoho is also doing more than few correct things. But when it comes to photo editing I think an online version would serve two purposes, first it would bring them some revenue through advertisements and second this will probably attract customers to buy their desktop software. You can find a free copy of Photoshop from place you surely know, and this is hitting Adobe in a nasty way. What I would love to see is some kind of point system which could later be in cashed as a discount for Photoshop. It just an idea, but I suppose it will encourage users to work more on online photoshop this will gradually add some more money in Adobe's pockets. Other good thing they can do is to bring up API for their online product very much like Google earth. This reason behind this ideas is my belief, ' more seen>more used>more revenue.' We all know what a simple community driven widget in sidebar of a blogger can do for a website. When people can use some app for free, they start feeling a kind of bond with that service provider, then it doesn't matter whether that company do some evil or not. And this love generates revenue, we all know it don't we?
If you want a following, and this one also go for bigwigs, then you must show a free friendly face on internet, your advertisements should not be to bright to make user feel that he is being used, and this will keep the relation friendly, for long time. This also brings us to one other big question, will Microsoft do something similar, are they ready to be a force in online world, who knows...
I think Adobe's Illustrator is also one good contender to be an online app. Will COREL jump to this online wagon?(Do you remember COREL?) One more thing which strikes to me, will some open source application also come in an online application form, who knows? GIMP may be next. With the rise of Flash and Flex as one of the preferred set as rich media generator, Adobe is really on steroids.
One thing leads to other, one thread leads to other, and scientists also say that this world is made up of strings. When we talk any thing online we some how also bring mobile devices in bigger equation. One can simply go on and think on using Photoshop on his iPhone! And other string lead us to one heated problem, What about small fishes who spent few caffeinated nights for developing online image, video editors?

Among my local friends I am one guy who remains online for most of the time(arguably), and one question I often face is, what do I do when I am online? I don't know how many of my local friends would be reading this post, as many of them are non blog surfers. But I feel that this will one good thing to share. First of all, let me mention that I use Firefox as my browser, second I use my laptop whenever it is available, because it gives me freedom to use my bed as my net-zone. Third point, which is not related to online surfing but would love to share, I always keep my winamp on while surfing, and use Foxytunes to control it from my browser.
As I have mentioned that I use Firefox, I work on multiple tabs, nearly always.

• First tab > Orkut
• Second tab > Google Reader
• Third tab > Blogger

They are the must, then few tabs which I open up prominently are:

• Wordpress
• Wikipedia
• Google
• Gmail

I will then use any of the last mentioned tabs as my Stumble page. After Google Reader, it the stumble upon which is taking upon me. Its turning out to be one wonderful add on, it can keep you rolling for hours at a go, and I will crumble on my bed, or jump in books only due to fatigue not boredom.
Other application other than browser is Gtalk which is always on. I prefer Gtalk when compared to Yahoo IM for simple one reason that is, it is less fussy than Yahoo IM client. And even for Yahoo, I prefer using Gaim.
This is how I spend most of my time online. One more thing which I would like to mention that broadband have take away one person away from TV and thats me. After broadband came to my life I am spending quite less time in front of TV. And I am also waiting for higher speed so that we can jump to IP-TV, that would be quite interesting. Last time, on Holi Special when I saw KBC ( Not for SRK but for Rani), I just thought of how IP-TV can bring a paradigm shift in television industry, we will easily be able to vote for, audience poll, can take part in game directly. One thing which I would suggest is that, think of reality television, and then think of IP-TV and then...you will be saying EUREKA.

I was busy, with my SIS who arrived day b4 yesterday, so was busy with her nad then there was holy...Why didnt I posted yesterday...

Its grossly a personal choice to include advertisements or not. I was kind off undecided, that whether I should include advertisements or not, but now I have made up my mind to include few advertisements.
Reasons behind me putting advertisements...
I am spending too much time on computer and its time when I want to see returns.
I am planning for a video blog, for which I need a camera, and I am not having funds.

Blogging is still a hobby for me, rather can be called as a serious hobby. As its not a full time job so... so what? I can still ask for money. [;-)]

So the news is that I have decided to put few advertisements on this blog.

When it comes to blogging some times we need to bring up screen shots, only option I used till know was the print screen button. There are few screen shots softwares available but I some how did not found a free one. But then I found this pretty small app, known as Rumshot. This is small, and have plenty of themes which are to be downloaded after the software is with you. Here are few screen shots of which using themes I really liked...
You can certainly give it a try, for two reasons, its beautiful and its small.
One addition which I would really like to see is, ability to customize the size of shot.