Recently Google unveiled Moderator. Moderator is a tool that allows you to crowdsource questions and suggestions.
To put things in perspective, Google Moderator was developed as an internal tool to see what questions a majority of people wanted to ask during a talk and then ask the top questions to the presenter. However, it found more uses and now it has been opened to the masses via the app engine.
So lets take this new tool for a spin, shall we ?
Among many other things, the internet provides us with tons of information. Unfortunately, there is no friendly librarian who knows the ins and outs of the collection, understands just what we’re looking for and can guide us. Of course there are search engines, but sometimes a search engine won’t do because what we’re looking for is too complicated or random or requires the knowledge and experience of an expert.
When searching for answers, there are three basic principles that you should follow to yield great results:
That’s simple, right? Wrong! Often that is the toughest part.
Like any other geek I have an eternal love for gadgets, especially those shiny, slick and expensive ones. If you’re reading this, I am sure you’re in that category as well. Over time, I discovered a number of websites that I found extremely useful for my gadget mania. Some help me decide what to buy next, other for troubleshooting, and a couple to get rid of the old ones. Here you go …
Being the titilating tweeting twitterer that I am, I figured it was time for another brief round-up of some Twitter tools that have been doing the rounds in cyberspace recently. Twitter seems to be going from strength to strength and web developers are coming up with even more innovative ideas for Twitter web programs and software tools.
Here are a few that have caught my eye recently :
This interesting service seems to be trying to make a dent in Pownce’s bubble. Or look at it another way - imagine sending out one big private email to everyone - or one big SMS. Now you get an idea of what GroupTweet is all about.
Hey MUO readers! For those of you that know me, you’ll also know how much I LOVE FREE stuff. I use lots of different methods to try and find answers. Search engines, asking my group of international admin’s and finally other web resources.
My company has had a subscription to Experts Exchange for a long while now. I guess I got spoiled because when the subscription ran out and the big wigs decided it was a waste of money expendable I started looking for a new solution with just as much information online. I searched for a while until I came upon IT Knowledge Exchange. It was just what I was looking for….a free version of Experts Exchange. A user-powered tech support community. I started by looking through their database of questions and found some interesting tid-bits.
I have made a new friend - well actually I am becoming reacquainted with an old friend. Have you heard of Smarterchild? Smarterchild is an AimBot, an automated assistant that can be added to your instant messenger contacts. It can help you remember things, lookup headlines, find out about local movies, and so on. Now that AIM has been integrated into Gmail this might be a great combination for making SmarterChild into your virtual Personal Assistant.
Have you noticed that phone companies charge an arm and a leg for directory inquiries? Last I checked it was well over a dollar at AT&T and the other big boys. I couldn’t just stand around throwing my money away on frivolous things like information. Money should be spent on fun things like alcohol, partying and the such (unless my wife is reading this then lets replace those with Baby Formula, Gucci Bags and Car Payments).
For my first MakeUseOf post I will be taking you through the wonder that is Goog-411. You dial up 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any (US) phone. After you get a friendly Google hello you follow the voice prompts which are extremely intuitive.
You may be well familiar with biggies like Youtube, Digg, Wikipedia, and StumbleUpon. They are all big and 100% user-powered websites. However, what about the smaller ones, focused on a single aspect and still able to attract a huge user base. So here you go, six really cool and fast growing communy-powered websites that you should definitely see.
1. Instructables - Extremely useful, entertaining and rather addictive online community where people share what they do and how they do it. Here you can find hundreds of excellent home-made DIY (Do It Yourself) guides detailing how to turn some of the garage junk into cool stuf, like invisible book shelf, hairspray-powered potato cannon or even making a wallet (from an old keyboard). See pic below.
Poor Yahoo. Once the unassailable giant of the internet that could do no wrong, it has been constantly overshadowed by the big kid on the block (you know who it is, starts with a G, ends in an E…..). Once I thought Yahoo Mail and I would live together for ever and produce lots of healthy email but then Gmail stole my heart away…..
But all is not lost for Yahoo. People love to put them down but I still love them and they are still a mighty force to be reckoned with. Here’s why:
(1) Del.icio.us
Just last week makeuseof covered ‘HowTo’ sources, extremely handy services listing thousands of all kinds of user-contributed ‘HowTo’ guides. While these services provide an excellent solution for all ‘HowTo’ type questions, they’re of little help when it comes to other range of questions, i.e. What … , Where… , When … , Why…. , etc.
And that’s what this post is about: popular and totally free Question and Answers (Q&A) communities where users can
‘HowTo’s (HowTos, HowTo’s, or whatever you prefer to call them) are excellent problems solvers: they provide quick, easy-to-follow and non-overwhelming solutions to one or another problem that pop-up during daily routines. People love them, especially when they’re free, regardless whether it’s a step-by-step guide or a couple of minutes long video.
Good news, the amount of freely available, user-contributed HowTo’s out there is staggering. There is something for everyone: ranging from fun stuff i.e. how to make invisible book shelf, imitate gunshot wounds and even open up a Coke machine to more practical stuff i.e. how to negotiate a raise or tie a Tie. All categorized, commented and rated by users like you and me. Below you’ll find all ‘HowTo’ services we could find, as always all free, well-categorized and hopefully objectively ranked. Plus a bonus ‘HowTo’ search engine at the end. Enjoy!
We have already reviewed bunch of google services but only 2 services from Yahoo, so it is a right time for Yahoo Answers, one more application with 100% user generated content.
Yahoo Answers is a place where you can ask and answer questions. And unlike many other similar services and forums, things happen extremely fast here. Most of the questions receive multiple replies within a one day of posting. It is like free consulting service.
Ether is a web-based service that allows to sell valuable information over the phone, e-mail or through website. There are many people who are professionals in what they do or quite informed about particular topic. These people can be accountants, lawyers, translators, PC experts, bloggers, journalists, ebay experts, comedians and anyone with definite information about something.
Ether provides service that lets these people sell their valuable knowlege. It is a platform for selling personal services and can be referred as “ebay for services”.
Subscribe to MakeUseOf and get daily updates about new cool websites and programs in your email for free. Plus get free cheat sheets to your favorite programs.
