Sean Shadmand » news

Google testing out preview pages in search

sshadmand — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:11:51 +0000

I stumbled onto the google test list tonight and noticed a new preview feature in search. It works really well and takes good advantage of the excess white space on their search page. A nice bonus is the non forced nature of it. If you mouse over any of the results nothing happens unless you click on one of the magnifying glasses. The full length preview of the page immediately comes up (way quicker than I have ever seen on other search engines) and since its the full page scrolled you can read and browse it quite thoroughly. After the first magnifying glass is selected, subsequent search results show the preview by simply putting the mouse over it. Also if you scroll the preview does not flicker through mouse over events so you can browse the full preview. When you stop scrolling and mouse over a new result it then switches. Overall feel was great and I hope they roll this out.

Google preview

AppMakr Hits the Ground Running

sshadmand — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:04:14 +0000

AppMakr.com has gotten some good press today :)

TechCrunch/CrunchGear
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/06/appmakr-make-your-own-iphone-apps-for-just-two-bills/
“What AppMakr lacks in vowels they make up for in coolness. ”

MobileCrunch
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/01/03/appmakr-transforms-app-store-landscape-enables-anyone-to-make-their-own-iphone-app/
“Surprisingly, AppMakr was extremely well done and easy to use.”

Livingston
http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2010/01/04/appmakr-makes-iphone-apps-accessible/
“AppMakr service is a no-brainer for most small companies and nonprofits.”

Scobleizer
http://scobleizer.com/2010/01/04/part-i-hot-startups-to-watch-in-2010-2/
“Top 25 Startups of 2010″

Guy Kawasaki
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2010/01/how-to-make-an-iphone-app.html#axzz0benPLHYD
“I can now offer custom iPhone apps for each of the 800 Alltop topics. How cool is that?”

Politifact

sshadmand — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:58:23 +0000

Politifact

I heard about this site while listening to an interview on NPR. In this interview the host asked thier guest some questions as to why “they are so angry” at thier local senator. The guest replied that he is a liar and signed bills to allow a rediculous measure in an unwanted bill. She was irate at the situation, what was interesting is how the host then turned to a guest from Pilitifact who seemed to have researched the case and found taht many of the angry protesters points were driven by rumors as the references to documents they made were unsubstantiated. Now I am perfectly aware that Politifact is yet another level of abstraction from the “real truth” just like any other news agency. What is interesting to me, after I browsed around thier site is the fact that they give you thier opinion and consolidate every reference and statement into linkable sources on the right hand gutter of the web page. It’s like having your own senate secratary gathering the facts for you so you can make your own informed descisions on a topic.

Pants on Fire

They give a summary of statment or claims made by our politicatns and then exmine their refernces and sources and rate how true the statememnt is on a “truth -o-meter”. Their meter varies from basic true or fals all the way down to “Pants on Fire” for those claims made that are not only exagerated but baseless.

Pulitzer

They also show you links to all the references and sources they reveiwed so you can digg into the claims yourself and form your own opinion. The site definitely fills a need and will ecome popular enough so that our politicians are more careful when trying to exagerate claims just to gain the viewers attention. ALso a nice reference for Politifact is thier wininnging of the 2008 pulitzer for national reporting after only being luanched in 2007.