Powerset enters the search engine realm with an offering of tools for users to search Wikipedia more effectively. Instead of keywords, Powerset’s technology harnesses the power of human conversation that serves as the backbone of their engine’s algorithm. That removes the need for users to always know the exact terms related to what they’re searching. Powerset does all the dirty work for you. The search results can be a bit daunting to digest if you’re used to Google. But for hardcore researchers, it’s easy to tell that Powerset leaves no stone unturned.

Apart from Wikipedia, Powerset plans to partner with other wiki-like sites to expand their database. Already, it is showing what the future of web search might be. A Google killer? Who knows? I’d dare say Microsoft would be better off buying them rather than play hide-and-seek with Yahoo. My bet is Powerset is already on Wikimedia’s Christmas shopping list by now.

One of the downsides of blogging is not knowing whether or not your readers are “getting it”.

Sure, you know what Gas tungsten arc welding is, but for us mere mortals, that sounds like a bad lab experiment back in college that we’d rather forget about. If you’re familiar with Snap Shots (see sample), Apture should feel right at home except that it gives you full control over your “info bubbles” and you have the power to assign bubbles only to the content that you choose right on your blog (unlike the arbitrary way that Snap does it). One great example we can use is Christine Gambito. Remember who she is? If not, click on her name (now na hahaha). I added Wikipedia, images and video to the info bubble to help jog your memory. Ok, done? You can add info bubbles to any text on your blog to give your users a rich multimedia experience, if not a lesson in history. The service is currently in beta and is accepting registrations.

Some bugs still need to be worked out, such as conflicts with flash objects and the inability to detect the same content on the main page and post page (meaning if you add bubbles from the main page, you’d have to do it again on the blog post).

After realizing that my 2-year-old Compaq laptop (aptly baptized as Maximus) wasn’t serving my needs anymore (despite my fruitless attempts at ‘pimping’ it), I decided to hunt for a new one while I as on a 10-day tour of Manila. In particular, I was looking for a lightweight yet powerful PC with quick processing speed, more-than-enough disk space and lots of RAM. I was getting kinda bored with Compaq’s and HP’s offerings and true enough, as I was scouring Glorietta’s Park Square, the picture was bleak. So I thought, why not a Vaio? I entered Electroworld’s store and saw a Sony display table with a Vaoi FZ on it. It was beautiful — a strikingly vivid 15-inch LCD screen, 250GB HD and 2GB of RAM — all that for just 74,000 pesos! The Electroworld guy said that the unit recently got a big price slash, something like 50%. So I was totally sold! When I was getting ready to buy it, I was told that the display unit was the last one they had in stock. Oh my. Ok, later dude, I’ll think about it, is what I told him. The security guard was even trying to convince me, saying the Vaio was put on display only on that day. Fortunately my cousin Ria was bugging me from outside the mall to haul my ass out coz she and her posse of blogger friends were waiting for me. I did go out empty-handed, which is good I guess, coz that would mean more PC-obsessing the next day. I looked up the FZ online and what do you know. The FZ that Electroworld was trying to sell to me did not have the specs I was told it had! The actual specs were: 15-inch non-LCD screen (but the colors were still pretty), 160GB HD and 2GB RAM. The specs above were for a different model that costs 160,000 pesos. Darnit.
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This is sort of a preemptive post since I said in my earlier one that the contest will end on May 8. Now is May 6, what’s the hurry? First of all, the day after I started the contest, AJ, always faster than a speeding bullet, made his entry here. His answer is Jonas delos Reyes. And guess what, he’s RIGHT!

To mark his Yahoo debut, Jonas makes his first official blog post on the Yahoo Philippines Answers blog:
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Three Reasons Why Manila Bulletin’s Website is Stuck in the Stone Age:

1. Their links to their news articles expire faster than you can say “Three Reasons Why Manila Bulletin’s Website is Stuck in the Stone Age”

2. Their links are expired, so what’s a regular guy like me to do?! Search! But:

3. No RSS feed! Nuff said.

Holler out to the editors of Manila Bulletin! Fire your web team, now na!!

Another round of PR updates rocked the Ratified.org system today, with 181 blogs gaining Pagerank and only 43 (whew) shaving off some green brownie points.

Congrats to the 8 blogs who broke out today:

Kubiertos
Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?
Market Manila
Photojunkie
Sasha Says…
Mapiles.com
Lightchasers Photography
keyboard monologues

A few notable bloggers inching towards the 100 mark:

Coy (#122), Brian (#134), Bloggista (#145) and Technogra.ph (#153).

If you have not been ratified, use this contact form. May take a while though. Also, I’d like to remind ratified bloggers to manage their feeds with Feedburner and activate the Awareness API so that our system can pick up your subscriber numbers.

Thanks!!

Last March 26, 2008, IBM launched a Corporate Service Corps program to help third world countries in various IT-related and socio-economic projects. Over a period of 3 years, the company will be sending about 600 of its employees to do volunteer work. Whether they will be working on a paid leave is unclear. For 2008, 100 volunteers composed of 12 teams will be sent to countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Ghana, Romania and Tanzania. Those assigned in the Philippines will be developing a system to track loan and grant beneficiaries of the Philippine Development Assistance Program. They will not be based in Manila, but in the less stressful areas of Davao City (yey) and Cagayan de Oro.

Chikka features a new web-based version of the original Chikka Messenger — the Chikka Text Messenger for the Web.

Google introduces stylin’ new themes for iGoogle done by famous artistic icons such as:
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iBlog4 was a huge success, but I have to admit that 90% of the time I wasn’t paying attention to the speakers. For me, it was a success because bloggers got to meet bloggers they’ve never met before. Ok, me being the blind antisocial one, I only met a few for the first time, such as Shari, Jerome, Markku, Fritz, Ade, Benj … my memory is failing me. It was nice to see AJ, Noemi, Aileen, Jay, Miguel and Juned around too. I expected to see Jehz there, but apparently his dictator of a girlfriend dragged him to Pangasinan for a scientific expedition. iBlog4 wouldn’t be complete if it weren’t for the company of my Davao friends Migs, Winston, Blogie and cousin Ria, who I might add, brought Malcolm Hall down with her entertaining talk. Yeah, Mindanao bloggers rule! ;p Kudos to Janette for a job well done.
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Echoing AJ’s intriguing new blog project, I’d like to do something similar for my blog’s first ever online contest.

To join, read the clues below and blog your answer. You can only make one guess and your guess must reveal the blogger’s name and blog URL. The blog post MUST link to this post. That’s all I ask. When done, leave a comment containing your contest entry’s URL. The first person to guess correctly will win $25 payable through Paypal. I will base the “firstness” on the order of comments posted here and not on the date or time you wrote your blog post.

Here are the clues:

This blogger is Yahoo’s new Online Community Manager for the Philippines. Similar to what Aileen is doing for Google, she/he will be Yahoo’s “eyes and ears” for the Philippines and will be actively marketing Yahoo’s products. But for now, he/she will be based in Singapore (major clue there already). She/he experienced a life-altering event last month (another major clue). His/her job starts on May 1st, which is today!

This blogger organizes events more than he/she attends them. He/she doesn’t blog very often. Her/his blog is hosted on Blogger. I met her/him once in Davao City and once here in Manila during a certain food tour. On both occassions, he/she was wearing black (lol). He/she is the “quiet” type of person, although her/his former job entailed a lot of talking in front of many people.

Who is this Yahoo?!? Contest ends on May 8, 2008. Per DTI DCO Permit #101514119.

Lovd By Less is a new open source application lovingly written on Ruby that allows you to start your own social network. Checking the demo, I reckon the company, smartly named “Less Everything“, put a lot of (or less?) thought into this. Definitely not just one of those run-of-the-mill php scripts we uninstall everyday. Any Ruby programmers out there willing to give it a test? (If only I was one)

I got an invitation from Leah Plaxton, Marketing Manager for a new online collaboration app called Projjex, to try out their service. In a nutshell, this is what Projjex is:

Projjex is a web-based collaborative task manager that helps small teams share their work. Teams can share tasks, documents, notes, meetings and time. It’s easy to use, runs completely in a browser, and has a fully functional free version.

I signed up at their site and it does look promising. Check it out!

Two months ago, I was playing around with the idea of adding Alexa data to Ratified.org’s ranking system. That idea, however, was met with great opposition, so I abandoned it. A few days ago though, Alexa announced their new ranking system, which to me is more reliable and credible because it is based on more traffic sources rather than just the Alexa toolbar. As a result, my own Alexa rankings are at their all time lows, but at least now I can say, with some caution (explanation below), that Alexa is making sense this time.

Including Alexa’s data was a tricky one for me because it could not correctly rank blogs hosted on Blogger, Wordpress, i.ph, Multiply and Blogsome. Their “improvement” apparently did not involve solving their long standing problem in identifying blogs on subdomains. I’m working on how to resolve it, so please bear with me. The algo is a little rough on the edges too and that calls for a string of adjustments in the next few days.

The last update shows major movements in the rankings, as evidenced here and here. You can also see the top 25 blogs based on Alexa rankings. If you have questions, comments or suggestions please leave a comment below. Thanks.

Yep, you read it right! 88DB.com is throwing big bloggers party and you (yes, you — as long as you’re a blogger) are cordially invited!

Here are the details:

What: 88DB.com Bloggers’ Night
When: April 26, 2008 @ 7pm
Who: Bloggers of any Pagerank, Alexa Rank, Ratified Rank or whatever
How: Just leave a comment below with your Full Name and URL.
Why: Booze, Music, Prizes and 88DB.com
Where: Katips Bar in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City (close to my alma mater yey!)

A PSP is up for grabs too! Just “come as your blog” and who knows, you might come home with this nifty gadget. Tip: Print out a screenshot of your blog on t-shirt transfer paper and iron it on a shirt. :p

Wanna join us? Leave a comment below with your full name and URL. Props to Ate Aileen.

See ya!

PS - Here is the list of attendees so far