Orangeinks

The Internet’s Dirty Little Secret

Internet company algorithms are tailoring the flow of information based on what they think we need and not what we want. Eli Pariser has a very interesting insight about this matter and he’s not only talking about “feeds” but all sorts of web projects that tend to “customize” the web for us. Do we really need a customized web, tailored to meet our internet needs and get information based on what an algorithm is suggesting?

 

Tags: algorithm, internet, search, Technology

SortFix Recommends Keywords for your Search

SortFix is a new search engine that will help you enrich your search experience. They created a graphical interface that will boost your search skills. It will recommend additional keywords as you search/type the basic ones.

The power of Sortfix is not in its indexing algorithm. The generated search results still come from the giant search engine, Google. What Sortfix is trying to do is improve the way the user searches by providing additional keywords that is related to the initial search keyword(s). Behind the scene an intelligent algorithm imitates a professional searcher – by scanning and examining the results, it reveals the significant keywords and terms that will help you to define a better question.

This is a great site to recommend to novice users. It will greatly improve their search skills while still getting results from Google. By using SortFix’s unique interface you can play with the suggested keywords, and create your own individual and precise query, and when you ask a precise question you usually get the right answer.

Demo Video

Tags: search, search-engine, Sortfix, Technology

Are Micro Projectors the Next Big Thing?

Micro Projector’s are said to be the new must have gadget but they haven’t been here all that long – there’s been a rumble in the gadget market in the last 12 months, almost out of no-where small handheld projectors started to be released, starting with the 3M Mpro which was swiftly followed by a number of other manufacturers such as Optima and WowWee. They have been a long time in the making, with 10 years of miniturising and compacting the technology and other developments such as brighter, better lasting LED’s, smaller memory and video processors but finally a product that is capable of producing projected images of up to 40+ inch’s on any near-by wall is now available in the palm of your hand, quite literally.

Now there are a number of micro projectors in the market the producers are starting to look at other ways to improve the new gadget phenomenon (other than improving resolution, contrast ratio etc.) and as a result the latest microprojector development is that the newest range of Nikon Coolpix camera’s includes several with embedded micro projectors, capable of displaying the images you have taken on any surface! This sudden burst of activity within microprojectors makes them look set to take the mainstream technology market by storm, look out for them this christmas in gadget shops and electronics retailers!

A guest post by Dave @ Micro Projector 5

Tags: Micro Projectors, Projectors, Technology

Aurora Update: The Future of Browsing

We covered the first two videos of the Aurora browser concept a while back. It’s a project of Adaptive Path and Mozilla Labs. This is the update on the development of the concept. This is part 3 and 4 of the videos for the future browser concept.

Video 3

This video shows us Aurora’s view on integrating the web with physical environment which is particularly focused for mobile use.

Video 4

It gets more interesting with the gestural interface. It’s like using a browser form the movie Minority Report. It shows how Aurora design would work on a large screen with a gestural interface which uses a camera to interpret the user’s gestures.

Aurora sure does promise a lot of cool things for future browsing. Aurora is super interactive and a real eye candy. What I am particularly interested in right now is the future of websites. From the looks of it, all the pages that they are browsing are full of widgets if not flash based. What will happen to the good old text pages like blogs and wikis? After all, the browser is only as good as the website it is visiting. That being said, Aurora is still a very interesting concept.

You can view the full video without the commentary.

Tags: adaptive path, aurora, browser, future, mozilla labs, Technology