Web 2.0 Tools To Master Economic Development and Competitive Intelligence
Looking to expand your toolbox of blog search engines? Like the colour green? Take a look at the new Feedster.
Feedster has revamped its website and included a few new functionalities including:
Below is a screenshot for a news feed for the word, “Montreal”
Feedster is available at http://www.feedster.com
In a bizarre twist, Wikipedia has found itself in news regarding a murder. According to recent news reports, Wikipedia provided news on the murder of professional wrestler Chris Benoit’s wife hours before police arrived on the scene of the crime.
The question that I am asking myself is “Since when did Wikipedia become an outlet for breaking news even before details are not confirmed by authorities?” Putting aside the unanswered questions of who made the edits to the page and associated mystery, the issue still remains that Wikipedia provided information on a subject that yet to be confirmed.
The power of Wikipedia is overwhelming to the point that it has become the only resource for information on the web for some. Will it be a question of time until it will be a collaborative news platform where unsubstaniated details will be published? In addition, how will Wikipedia prevent a similar situation from happening again.
Latest relevant information: Web Post On Dead Wrestler Examined
Users of Google Docs and Spreadsheets should be aware of GoogleLookup.
GoogleLookup is a function that allows individuals to launch a search on the web regarding information about people, places and things. For example, entering =GoogleLookup(”Canada”; “internet users”) in a cell will produce the number of internet users in Canada. By replacing Canada with others countries such as Mexico and United States creates a spreadsheet as seen below.
For the purposes of creating this spreadsheet, Google selected to pull the data from the CIA’s World Factbook.
I am always fascinated on how individuals attempt to sell content online. It seems that the classic aggregators do the trick for some but for others, aggregators seem to take content and hide it amongst other documents.
ContentSyndicate seems to be yet another content aggregator but with a twist. According to its press release, “Content Syndicate decided to streamline and consolidate the process of content buying and selling using an internet-based collaborative model.” Collaborative model? Sounds like a web 2.0 based resource. Whether you are content buyer or seller, ContentSyndicate’s interface is easy to use.
Although ContentSyndicate is presently in beta testing however, it is worth taking a look at now and keeping your eye on in the future.
According to a recent report from competitive intelligence consulting firm, Fuld & Company, large U.S. based companies will boost their investment in their respective competitive intelligence departments within the next five years. Specifically, an estimated $10 billiion dollars will be put towards personnel and CI-based activities, excluding subscription to information sources, databases and obtaining consulting services.
This finding should cause internet intelligence researchers to take notice. Many of these large companies will be on the lookout of professionals that are able to search the web efficiently and extract strategic intelligence on a continuous and ad hoc basis.
Too many casual users of the internet take for granted the process of entering keywords in a search engine. Yes, you may get lucky when you enter the first couple of keywords that may come to mind to arrive at list of results however, searching the web is a skill and not a game of chance. One element that individuals seem to ignore when searching the web is taking the time to select the right keywords. It is a process will save you a tonne of time and avoid headaches. I’ll give you a great example.
For the past two days, I have been conducting literature searches on the web, specific from news sources. I was lucky enough to find what my colleague needed however, additional background information was required. Naturally, I used the same keywords in the initial search and changed the date range in the advanced search option. I assumed that I obtain some kind of result. No dice. A few minutes later, I decided to simplify to the query statement to see what I would get. Presto, the result that I was looking for on the first page.
Morale of the story: Do not abandon your search until your have choosen the best combination of keywords.
Here is a tool for individuals who still insists on searching web with both Yahoo and Google.
Search Both allows internet searchers to submit a query to find results from the two databases of online content by only entering keyword(s) once. The tool is not unique since GahooYoogle offers the same functionalities however; there is one minor difference. As Search Both provides its results from both respective engines, users can hop back and forth from full-screen presentations of Yahoo’s and Google’s results. The two screenshots below furnishes a glimpse of the Search Both results interface for a news search regarding, “economic development”.
As seen in the second screenshot, the entire page from Google News can be accessed by placing one’s mouse on the second half of the SearchBoth’s display frame.
SearchBoth is available at http://www.searchboth.com
Did you happen to miss the series finale of the popular U.S. television show, “The Sopranos”? Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to watch the show however, I figured I would somehow catch a brief clip of the controversial ending online. Obviously, I headed over to YouTube to see if anyone was brave enough to post a minute of the show. To my surprise, I found a clip of the last eight minutes. The quality of the video was poor at best but, I finally learned about what the hoopla was all about. As I went back the next day to YouTube to show my friend the clip, YouTube removed the clip, at the request of HBO, the network that broadcast the show.
My point behind telling you about this query on YouTube is how content on the web 2.0 can appear in seconds and disappear in the same amount of time. Whenever you are reading and / or extracting content from various platforms, do not take it for granted that the same content will be there when you revisit the source.
Anyone with a cell phone today has the ability to connect to the internet. Having this luxury gives individuals the power to search the web from anywhere. Ironically, the latest number do not reflect that individuals in the U.S. are not making use of mobile search as compared to users in the United Kingdom.
According to Bango, “The top five countries accessing the mobile web via Bango* in April 2007 were the UK at 27%, the US at 21%, South Africa at 11%, India at 9% and Indonesia at 3%.“
Here is a tool for individuals who wish to go beyond YouTube to find video content online.
Blinkx is a search tool that permits users watch video online as it becomes indexed. The screenshot below provide an example of how results are presented by Blinkx.
Blinkx is available at http://www.blinkx.com/.
