June, 2011

Genealogy is a fun jQuery plugin that makes it possible for elements to have their family reunions.

So, for example, if you want to return to a children’s children of an element, you can now use simply ‘grandchildren’.

Although this is merely an ‘alias-type’ library, it can by no means be regarded as useless. Genealogy.js is serious business. ;)

As you have probably noticed, Google are mixing things up a bit.  According to Google, the most recent updates to their search engine page will continue rolling over the next few months, due to their philosophy of “constant revision and improvement”.

Google say that the “new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from one device to another and have a consistent visual experience”, which will supposedly include better integration between computers, smartphones, tablets, and TVs.

The last major update introduced the sidebar navigation system, and this new update introduces a new black bar at the top of the search screen.  However, it is all a little confusing at this stage, as changes are rolling out differently depending on your location and the browser that you are using.

The colourful sidebar seems to be staying, although the headings are being displayed in red which gives the page a more colourful look.  While Google say they are “bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way”, the overall look of the Google search results page is actually less minimal than it was a few months ago.

As you would expect, opinions are differing widely about the top bar, with some people lamenting the loss of space and others enjoying the benefits of faster navigation.  There are also plenty of Google users who simply don’t like change of any kind, as they have to re-familiarise themselves with everyday functions.

Do you trust online reviews?  A recent academic study into the Amazon review system suggests it might be corrupt, or at least not as neutral as you might have thought.  The study shows that 85% of Amazon’s top 1,000 reviewers have been approached with free merchandise through the Amazon Vine program.

Here is some of the press release about the study, titled, “Buyer beware: study reveals hidden motives behind Amazon reviews”, and published by pcmag:

In the first academic study of its kind, Trevor Pinch, Cornell University professor of sociology and of science and technology studies, independently surveyed 166 of Amazon’s top 1,000 reviewers, examining everything from demographics to motives. What he discovered was 85 percent of those surveyed had been approached with free merchandise from authors, agents or publishers.

Pinch, who also found the median age range of the reviewers he surveyed was 51 to 60, a surprise said Pinch, because the image of the internet is more of a young person’s thing. Amazon is encouraging reviewers to receive free products through Amazon Vine, an invitation-only program in which the top 1,000 reviewers are offered a catalog of free products to review.

While the Amazon Vine program does not require people to write positive reviews, it does pose some interesting questions for reviewers who may feel pressured to post positive reviews in order to stay with the program.  There is also an air of secrecy about Amazon Vine, because it is an invitation only program and the criteria for getting invited are not disclosed.

In other interesting statistics from the study:

- 85 percent had received free products from publishers, agents, authors and manufacturers;
- 78 percent of these often or always reviewed such free products;
- 70 percent were male;
- 40 percent are writers themselves;
- 11 percent, one of the largest occupational groups of reviewers, are retirees.

paper.js is a JavaScript library for working with vector graphics.

paper.js creates a DOM object, allowing you to create layers of graphs to create complex vectors.

The library is based on Adobe Illustrator’s Scriptographer, and should be compatible with most Scriptographer projects.

paper.js has a number of useful features: handling mouse events; keyboard events; path-making; the library also allows the use of math formulas for advanced graphics.

Google are making another attempt at social networking, with a new service called Google+.  Maybe this service can finally do what Google Buzz and Google Wave never managed to do, and offer some serious competition to Facebook.

Although the Google+ project has been officially introduced, it is only available to a select group of Google users at the moment.  However, these users will be able to invite others on-board in the near future, although dates have not yet been announced.  Google are keen to emphasise that this is not a final product, even though the plus.google.com site looks like Google’s most fully formed social tool yet.

“In real life, we have walls and windows and I can speak to you knowing who’s in the room, but in the online world, you get to a ‘Share’ box and you share with the whole world,” said Bradley Horowitz, a vice president for product management at Google. “We have a different model.”   However, the basic user page looks quite familiar, with three columns and a stream of status updates in the middle.

Google+ looks a lot like Facebook, and offers similar functionality in the way it allows people to share photos, links, and status updates.  Google have lost a lot of ground to Facebook in the last couple of years, and although some analysts think it is already too late, this looks like Google’s most serious and obvious attempt at competing with the huge Facebook network.

According to comScore, 180 million people visited Google sites in May compared with 157.2 million on Facebook.  However, Facebook users looked at 103 billion pages and spent an average of 375 minutes on the site, while Google users viewed 46.3 billion pages and spent 231 minutes.

“We’re in the early days of making the Web more social, and there are opportunities for innovation everywhere,” a Facebook spokeswoman said about Google+ when talking to the New York Times.

Microsoft has launched its Office 365 cloud service, which is now available in 40 markets around the world.  It is designed to bring together a number of Microsoft products in cloud space, including Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online.

From the official Microsoft press release:  “The service was introduced in beta last year with enthusiastic response and, in a few months, more than 200,000 organizations signed up and began testing it. Businesses using Office 365 are already reporting impressive results and reducing IT costs by up to an estimated 50 percent while boosting productivity.”

For lots of people, Office 365 will be directly compared to Google Apps, which is already being used by lots of businesses and individuals around the world.  However, the two products are really quite different, with Office 365 being a cloud-based extension of Microsoft’s existing products and Google’s suite designed more as a direct replacement to office software.

However, there is no denying the fact that Microsoft and their Office suite have the upper hand when it comes to market acceptance.  Office 365 offers users a number of different services, with alternate pricing structures available for different plans.  Monthly prices will start from only $2 per user per month, and go up to $27.

Microsoft are working with a large network of partners based around Office 365, saying “Our partners represent some of the best-known, most-trusted brands in their local markets.  Our customers will be able to rest easy knowing their cloud services are backed by Microsoft and some of the greatest service providers in the world.”

Microsoft are differentiating between Office 365 for small businesses and Office 365 for enterprises, with individual customers also able to access these cloud services on a pay-as-you-go basis.  All versions are available now, with businesses able to try the product out for 30 days free by signing up at http://www.office365.com.