Reviews

Google has gone anal, and for all those A-Type personalities that like things neat and tidy, have they got a search engine for you. In a recent move by the Big-G, there is now a way to take all that unstructured data you've been searching for, and collating and sorting it into an orderly spreadsheet of labeled boxes. Literally, that is what Google Squared does. It uses the principles of 'semantic' search, gathering information from multiple sources to present you with all the information required to answer your query.  First announced at Google's recent Searchology event, Google Squared is now live and operational in Beta.

Surely you've been in the position where you have to run out to the bathroom in the middle of a movie, but you don't want to miss anything good.  It's so hard to gage when the right time to take a leak is.  And with the price of movie tickets always going up, you sure don't want to ruin your viewing experience just to go to the bathroom.  That's where RunPee comes in.

Remember the novel "1984" and the doom and gloom it portrayed as human existence came under the control of an entity called Big Brother. And then when the year actually came to past, we were somewhat disappointed that our lives were not turned upside down by some super human domination. But then, as fate would have it, in its place, a movie premiered that actually got us laughing about the supernatural...a movie that got our toes a tappin' and everyone singing those crazy lyrics by Ray Parker Jr: "If there's something strange in your neighborhood...if there's something weird and it don't look good...Who ya gonna call?...Ghostbusters!" Well Children of the 80s and older, Ghostbusters is now aiming their proton packs at a fresh new generation when "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" is released June 16, 2009.

Most of you probably know what torrents are and how to use them, but surprisingly there are plenty of people who still have trouble with them.  Not that you could blame them.  The first trick with getting over torrents is that you have to allow all kinds of firewall access and direct port forwarding on your router, which can be a bit tricky for the novice internet user.  Torrent2exe takes all the guess work out of torrents for beginners and makes a simple executable file that allows the user to download their desired torrent.

There are some people out there who love to clean.  I'm not one of them.  When I clean it comes in one large burst of energy that leaves me utterly spent--pretty much because I know I'm just gonna slob the whole place up again.  So when I see a product that has the potential to make cleaning easier, I have to check it out.  As See On TV: The Shark Steam Mop!

When profiling a certain celebrity, there always comes a point where you wind up looking for that perfect picture to accompany your article.  Its easy enough to use Google to search for images, but more often than not you wind up getting images that are unrelated to the search you're on.  

On April 4th, in "Bada Bing... is Microsoft putting a Hit on Local Search?" I blogged that when Bill Gates filed a trademark under the name "Bing" for "web sites to link to geographic data, map images, and trip routing" it was Microsoft's attempt to perfect a better "local search" mousetrap than Google. However skeptics quickly associated it with "Kumo" as another failed attempt by the little "M" to ever become a worthy contender of the big "G". Now in and AdAge article published May 25, Abbey Klaasen suggests Microsoft might be sinking $80 to $100 million in a "Bing" ad campaign to go toe to toe with the search engine giant.

Go ahead, take out your iPhone.  Go try to take a good picture with it.  Are you really satisfied with those results?  Even if you are, you can get a lot more out of your iPhone's camera by putting the pictures through some simple processes to enhance the picture quality.  If you're not a big Photoshop junkie, take a look at TiltShift Generator.  It's a great little online application that makes touching up your photos a snap.

Link aggregators are all the rage these days.  As a blog reader, surely you frequent such sites as Digg, Reddit, and a host of others that enable users to gather things that they like from the web and share them with other users.  Blerp is an aggragator in the same vein, only it focuses on the conversations that surround shared sites, instead of merely passing the links off to users.

We've all been feeling the crunch of the world's economy slowing down into this current recession, but a few hopefuls out there are trying to make the best of it.  CardsofChange is a site that collects the modified business cards of ditched workers all over the world and puts them on display.  We'll all get a few laughs out of these images, but maybe some of these bright individuals will find themselves a new gig, too!

Home improvement is easily one of the most fun and rewarding hobbies one can take up, and the internet has proven to be a good place to find information on lots of those particular projects on you "to-do" list.  Easy2DIY is an all-in-one stop for your fixer-upper projects that includes tutorials, shopping, and advice.

With a name like Stupeflix, you've got to be wondering what's up with this site.  What the site does is provide you with a graphical interface that allows you to create your own slide show videos, complete with soundtracks, text overlays, and image legends.  What makes the site a real winner is that it's not just easy to create these things, but you have all the freedom in the world to create your video.

Recently, Irish sociology student Shane Fitzgerald fooled numerous reporters by inventing a fake quote just hours after the death of French composer Maurice Jarre.  The quote, originally posted on Jarre's Wikipedia page, wound up in blogs and publications around the world.  Fitzgerald says this was done to teach journalists the importance of double checking the facts listed in Wikipedia before publishing them.  Maybe some of these writers would have been hip to the hoax if they had used Wiki Alarm.

The King of Pop has been feeling the crunch of the recession just like the rest of us, and now he's getting a little hard for cash.  In an effort to stay afloat, Michael Jackson has decided to start auctioning off items from his world-famous Neverland Ranch.  For this endeavor, Jackson has employed Julien's Auctions to create a catelogue of what's up for grabs.  JuliensAuctions.com will give you an interactive experience as you peruse Jacko's mysterious and bizarre auction items.

Not too long ago, a company called Fastskinz released a product that was supposed to increase your average fuel mileage by up to 20%. The idea was fool proof, simply cover you vehicle with a made-to-fit skin and viola, instant boost in miles per gallon. Sure it sounds great, but does it actually work? According to a test conducted by our friends at Popular Mechanics, it may actually decrease your fuel economy.

Summer is just around the corner!  Are you ready to show off that beach body yet?  If you're still getting around to developing that perfect six pack of abs, you may want to consider StrongestMan.org for a little information.  The site has a graphical interface that lets users select workouts by muscle area, and pulls routines from sources likw WikiHow and Del.icio.us to give you what you're looking for.

Do you ever have those moments when you look back upon your past and think of someone who greatly impacted your life?  Ever wish that you could reach back and give them a personal "Thank You" for being such an influence?  This, and many other themes of gratitude, is the basis of a new social website called ThankingOfYou.com.

Graffiti, as an art form, has evolved very quickly to involve everything from depictions of urban surroundings to territorial tags of gangs.  Many may think of it as the defacing of public property, however Graffiti Creator sees it differently.

Musée de la Civilisacion, as you may have guessed, translates from French into "Museum of Civilization" and is located in Quebec, Canada.  Their latest exhibit takes you back to ancient Egypt to learn about the process behind mummification, and the significance of the rituals these desert dwellers engaged in to secure a blissful afterlife.

With swine flu giving the world the willies about traveling, hand washing, and even breathing, it would be great to have an up-to-date referrence as to what the situation is around the world.  If you've been following the media's coverage of the pandemic, you get blasted every day with a dose of fear that can only be good for ratings.  Why not see how things are really shaping up?