A useful tool for a few years now, RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) feeds allow readers of your site to have information pushed from your site directly to their ‘feed aggregator’ of choice. RSS theoretically saves users the hassle of navigating to information and literally drops new information right in the reader’s lap. (Now if you could just get it to bring your pipe and slippers!)
~LindseyA era in research is coming to a close later this year. Microsoft announced that it would be discontinuing its CD-based encyclopedia, Encarta, on October 31, 2009. It will also cease to sell the student and premium software by June 2009. While no specific reasoning was eluded to, in the release Microsoft states:
~CrystalI was recently asked to join the ExpertSEM blog as a guest writer. Eager to prove myself, I wanted to find the coolest, most relevant topic to offer an awesome post that would blow minds. After about an hour, I was feeling lost and disappointed. How could I find the most important topics plaguing the minds of my fellow online marketers? I mean…I hit up the usual venues…Digg, popurls, Sphinn – I just wasn’t finding what I needed. I was just about to set it all aside until I came across this post: 6 Spicy Ways to Use Hot Topics & Trends to Explode Your Traffic; the second part of a series on how to discover trends and use them effectively.
~LindseyI came across the newest shift in the ever-changing, ever-mysterious search engine algorithms this morning—map listings are now displaying for general terms. This development has major implications for both advertisers and searchers alike. In the past, the search engines would display map listings based on search queries that contained some type of location information (e.g., city name, zip code, state, etc.). As of this morning, it appears that map listings are showing up based on IP address.
~ErikAccording to the British government, the answer is yes. A story in The Guardian states that the British government is drafting a plan to include twitter, blogging, podcasts and Wikipedia in grade school curricula in addition to tradition areas of learning. Students will also be required to “gain a fluency in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.”
~Angie