Have you ever struggled to find the torrents you are looking for? This means that you have to travel to 10 different sites until you find something that vaguely looks like the right torrent! TorrentZen aims to come to your rescue. TorrentZen is a live bittorrent search engine that brings the results of some of your favourite bittorrent search engines.
TorrentZen works in the same way as other torrent tracks but instead of actually hosting pages with the results, they provide a link to those pages on other search engines. Therefore TorrentZen functions in the same basic way as a meta search engine.
Alternative search engines seem to be popping up everywhere lately. Oneriot is yet another alt search engine but this one seems to actually provide some useful results. Like most other search engines Oneriot provides basic search results in a basic format. However, unlike other search engines, they prioritise their information based on its current popularity within their community. Popular results are a great idea, cause on Google I’m sick of seeing search results that are sold old they are now just obsolete.
Oneriot pushes our revelant, fresh, friendly and search results with real time energy. When using Oneriot you might notice that there is a search result above the others and this is because of their pulsing service. Pulsing is what they define as a search results that is getting buzz right now. The more real time buzz you get the higher on search results those articles will be and thus more traffic for your site.
Oneriot is a clean and very user friendly search engine that I expect to be hearing more about in the coming years. Im just a little worried about their current revenue model, cause there doesn’t seem to be one.
SnappyFingers is a new question and answer search engine that is slowly making waves in the search space. SnappyFingers currently has over 10 million questions in their database and has recently partnered with Kosmix in which you can see Snappy’s results within their searches.
SnappyFingers is a great place to come if you are looking to find the answers to the most basic of questions. Their search box is simple to use and users can just type in a question as if they were saying it out loud. This reminds me a little of Powerset in which was purchased by Microsoft for $100m about six months ago.
In terms of downside I mainly think that all comes from design. The design of SnappyFingers needs a huge amount of work. Currently the SnappyFingers seems to be set onto a fixed width, in which it really needs to be fluid. Additionally, the questions are actually quite hard to read and if the results were show in the same kind of way as Powerset or Google, then it would be much easier to scan the page looking for the answers you require. Finally the sidebar they are using is complete the wrong size for this type of site. A 300px sidebar is not needed, I’m sure 160px would be more than adequate.
I think SnappyFingers has a lot of potential, but I’m really not keen on the design and if I owned the company that would be the first thing I changed. Additionally, I’m not really sure where this company is going and what market they are trying to enter, because I know they are a question and answer search engine, but why would I use SnappyFingers over Yahoo Answers for example?
Google Knol has officially launched and some already say it may be the Wikipedia “killer.” Google has defined the “knol” as a unit of knowledge. How long before this little item become a staple in our society’s day to day vocabulary? Webster’s anyone?
Google Knol is where YOU get to create your own “wiki” like page based on your expertise. The site’s definition is “an authoritative article about a specific topic.” For starters I’m not quite sure how authoritative an article can be if it’s written by the common user, but credential aside, there are a few aspects that may bring writers into the light.
For starters every Google Knol user is identified by their google email login, secondly, their posts are only editable by the user. Unlike Wikipedia where multiple users can change the same page, Knol relies on one editor per created page, and thus cuts down on the randomness of changes from others. Still it begs the question how long will it take before someone can game this system, and unreliable articles start to appear at the top of search results?
Currently users can create knols, but there are only a few to speak of. Trying to search for topics may prove less than stellar due to the lack of substance on the page, but I expect Google Knol to expand very quickly. There are those that dislike Wikipedia simply because the “everyman” can be an expert on anything as long as they create an account and are willing to spend to the time to edit another’s page.
Can Google overtake Wikipedia? Give Knol a try and share your comments here.
Google has once again taken another step in the right direction. The company has done everything from managing our email, our documents, manages statistics, mapping the earth, and now provides us even more detail with regards to directions. Along with driving directions, you can now get walking directions to any of your destinations via Google Maps.
When you plug in your start point and your end point you can change from step by step driving instructions to walking instructions. The site assumes an average of 19 minutes per mile, and may alter the route due to you being on foot. For example, one way streets are not a problem because you are not on foot, and any walking trails that exist may not cut completely across areas that would have otherwise been inaccessible with a car.
I don’t really see this application useful for locals. Chances are anywhere you wish to walk you probably already know, and any further, you might as well take car or other form of transportation. These addition definitely seems useful for tourists. Perhaps you want to map the distance from your hotel to a point of interest, or perhaps you’re at a convention and want a place to eat off-site, this little addition can make a huge difference.
I find it funny though that the beta warns people to “Use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.” Kinda creepy, but a justified warning I think.
This feature is new, so the beta version may not be perfect, but despite it’s flaws, the addition definitely seems worthwhile.
Let’s face facts, bloggers write, for the most part, so their articles can be read. They want them read for any number of reasons,
- Internet fame
- Potential to make money from ads
- Obsessed with statistics
- Conceited
- Enjoying knowing someone is reading what you wrote
- Etc.
Most of us enjoy knowing that someone is reading what we as writers spent time and energy to write, the side effects of money and fame can be nice as well, but how to achieve? One simple way that I’ve found is to ask people to view your site. But how? Where? Relying on Google search results can take time and not everyone reads your MySpace bulletins or the tweets you obsessively send via Twitter, digg.com isn’t working that well and neither is Stumble Upon, and it may not be in your budget to buy ad space on a more popular site right now, so what can you do?
Email blog owners who have written similar articles and let them know about the one you wrote. Yes, it’s that simple. Don’t do this with every article you write, pick your very best and send the links to the biggest and best blogs out there. Don’t ask them to review your site or link to it, simply let them know you have written similar material that they or their readers might want to use and you like their site. Be honest and don’t make it sound cheesy.
How do you find people with similar articles? Try Google Blog Search and look for articles written in the last week or month. Does this really work? Absolutely. I used this technique last week, here’s what I did and the results from it.
They filmed part of the Transformers II movie in my town last week and some co-workers got behind the scenes photographs of the set and a video. They gave me permission to blog about it, which I promptly did. Next, I did a Google Blog Search for similar sites and found the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog, the owners email is displayed on the left sidebar. This is the email I sent him:
I saw you recently published an article & photos regarding Transformers 2… wanted to share with you one my recent articles with more photos and a video (with more videos being edited now for publication).
Thought your readers might enjoy these: http://www.randomn3ss.com/2008/06/05/exclusive-filming-of-transformers-2-photos-and-videos/
That’s it. Within a few hours, they published this article that contains a link to my site’s homepage and the direct link to the article. More than 1,000 unique visits came to that specific article over the following 12 hours from the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog. I’d call that a success.
I’ve used this technique sparingly as not to become a burden on anyone, seem pushy or ungrateful for what others have done for me. Using this method though, I have successfully had articles linking to my sites on Lifehacker.com, GetRichSlowly.org, and several other very well known high traffic blogs.
I’d love to hear about some success stories from people who give this a try. Not every email you send will have great results, but it does work. Keep an open mind too when a fellow blogger approaches you with an idea or to share content.
