Posted on February 21, 2008 by Steve
Google is ready to test out it’s Health portal with the Cleveland Clinic, according to CNN. The pilot is said to involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients who have volunteered to make their health records available through Google’s service. The Clinic already stores patients’ medical records online through a proprietary system called MyCharts, so the transfer is supposed to be pretty seamless. There are many concerns about the new service, including the fact that the stored medical records aren’t protected by HIPAA.
A screenshot from Google Blogoscoped shows what the interface could look like:
Google hasn’t yet made an announcement on the planned pilot launch. Google’s announcement is here.
Filed under: Google | Tagged: Google Health | No Comments »
Posted on February 20, 2008 by Steve
AOL has given their Home portal a new look, with 5 main sections — decorating, entertaining, green, organize/clean and do-it-yourself. It aims to be your resource for running your home “stylishly and efficiently.” According to CenterNetworks, the content will come from magazines including: GoodHousekeeping.com, Redbookmag.com, CountryLiving.com, HouseBeautiful.com, RealSimple and This Old House. Here’s the pitch:
AOL Home is your resource for running your home efficiently and stylishly. AOL Home offers advice, time-saving tips, tried-and-true techniques, and boundless bright ideas. Find inspiration and guidelines to recreate your living space. Get organizing and cleaning tips and tricks from the pros. Watch step-by-step instructions for useful do-it-yourself projects. Browse and search countless clever ideas for entertaining in your home. Learn how to make your home environmentally-friendly. You’ll find all this and more on AOL
Filed under: AOL, Tech News | Tagged: AOL Home | No Comments »
Posted on February 18, 2008 by Steve
LinkBlip is a simple service that generates a trackable link for you to send. When the recipient clicks on the link, you are automatically notified by email. If you have ever sent an email telling someone to check out a link, then never heard back, you might see the value in this. At least you’ll know that the person saw what you sent.
It’s like sending a read receipt, except it’s less annoying and you don’t know it’s happening. The notification also tells you what city and state the clicker was in.
LinkBlip was coded using CakePHP in 4 hours by web designer and developer Matthew Inman, co-founder of SEOmoz.
Filed under: Start-ups | Tagged: link tracking | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 15, 2008 by Steve
One Llama is a music discovery site not unlike Pandora internet radio. By typing in an artist or song title, you are given a list of similar songs, thereby discovering new music and music videos. Each person in the community is a “llama,” and they’ve created a social network where llamas can share their playlists with the community or find playlists from other llamas.
One Llama uses a combination of collaborative filtering and audio similarity to find the right match for your search request. They also harvest social networking information about each track resulting in better recommendations. An iTunes plugin (free download) allows you to discover and create playlists directly in iTunes.
One Llama is backed by IllinoisVENTURES and is located in Champaign, Illinois.
Filed under: Start-ups | Tagged: music discovery | No Comments »
Posted on February 14, 2008 by Steve
Israeli based Tersus offers a unique service that allows you to visually diagram a rich AJAX web application. Simply draw up some flow diagrams and Tersus will execute them and bring your application to life. No scripting or coding is needed — the interface is 100% visual.
Tersus is available via a free download and is open source.
Filed under: Start-ups | Tagged: ajax, rich web applications | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 12, 2008 by Steve
PicAnswers is a new service that allows you to take a picture of something you want to learn more about, upload it, and get answers from the community. For example, that old antique tobacco tin you’ve been holding on to — snap a picture of it and find out if it’s worth anything.
Yahoo Answers is leading the Q&A market by a long shot, with MSN and others trying to follow suit. However, none allow photo uploads with questions. For this reason, I could see PicAnswers becoming a useful research tool.
Filed under: Start-ups | Tagged: picanswers, picture question and answer | No Comments »
Posted on February 11, 2008 by Steve
The blogosphere already jumped all over Yahoo’s expected rejection of Microsoft’s takeover bid. Yahoo formally filed a rejection letter with the SEC today. The letter reads:
“After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments.”
Yahoo is believed to want an offer of at least $56 billion, or close to $40 a share. Some analysts expect Microsoft to up the ante to $5-12 billion — or, they could take an offer right to the Yahoo shareholders.
Filed under: Acquisitions, Microsoft, Yahoo | No Comments »
Posted on February 8, 2008 by Steve
If you’re a busy professional, it’s nearly impossible to fit learning a new language into your schedule. With SpanishPod, you can download free daily podcasts and listen to lessons on your iPod or mobile phone when convenient. They have on-demand lessons for every skill level from absolute beginners to advanced students.
The website supplements the lesson plans on the podcasts. When you’re done listening, go online at your convenience for supplemental resources and tools. You can also subscribe to lessons by RSS feed.
SpanishPod was started in 2007 by Praxis Languages Ltd. Praxis’ pioneering language training service, SpanishPod.com, has been widely acclaimed since 2005, and has set the standard for web 2.0 language training services.
Filed under: Start-ups | Tagged: learn spanish, spanish podcast | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 7, 2008 by Steve
If you write a blog, having a mobile version of your site might be a good idea. Prague startup Wirenode allows you to make a mobile blog in minutes with no coding. Just for fun, I made a mobile version of this site here: http://webside.wirenode.mobi/ - It only took a few minutes. Enter the URL of your RSS feed and you’re good to go. It’s hard to beat checking Google Reader on my iPhone, but it works!
Filed under: Mobile, Start-ups | Tagged: mobile blog, mobile website generator, wirenode | No Comments »
Posted on February 5, 2008 by Steve
Google has unveiled their Super Tuesday map that is going to, among other things, show real-time updates people are twittering regarding the voting process. Currently, the map isn’t loading for me in IE7.
They’ve also unveiled a gadget that shows election results updates in the 24 Super Tuesday states.
Filed under: Election 2008, Google | Tagged: google super tuesday election map, google super tuesday election results gadget | No Comments »
