If you were anywhere in the vicinity of an online video enthusiast who had embedded a YouTube video, yesterday, you were likely greeted with a cacophony of profanities. Why? Many users found their embedded videos were now marred by a large gray search bar plastered across the top of their embeds. Functional though it may have been, it wasn't pretty. And people weren't happy.

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The search bar was part of the YouTube skin, so users could remove it programmatically. But for people with multiple embedded YouTube videos, that meant a lot of editing.

Well, apparently, YouTube was listening. And they've quickly rectified the problem. The search bar is still there, but now with a much more graceful implementation.

As you'll see from the embedded video below, on some of the embedded videos the search bar is now triggered by a mouseover. Move your mouse onto the embedded video and it slides into view. Move it off the video and the search bar disappears.

Better? Not so fast. Or more accurately: you better be fast. Why? There's still a little hiccup when you're trying to grab the embed code on an embedded video. Click on additional information icon to get to the embed code. Search bar slides into place. Now try to grab the embed code to copy it. If you wait too long, the search bar times out and puts everything away. You've got to be pretty quick on the draw to grab the embed code.

So the search box is still flawed, but much less obtrusive.

One has to wonder - if it only took a few hours to correct this problem - why did YouTube choose to roll out the first version? Were they hoping users would take kindly to the missing chunk of real estate? Were they assuming the ease of searching would outweigh any aesthetic impact?

It's hard to say. But hopefully, YouTube enthusiasts and Google have found a happy middle ground with this implementation. Once some of the kinks are worked out.

YouTube search bar image courtesy of Lifehacker

Discuss

SEATTLE -- University of Washington athletic director Scott Woodward had no comment on Thursday night on a report that the Huskies had offered Southern California assistant head coach Steve Sarkisian the job of head football coach.

AFP - Microsoft on Thursday announced it has lured an Internet search executive from Yahoo to become head of its online services group.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- While studying the mechanics ...

Reuters - NASA said on Thursday that it will delay the planned launch of a major Mars unmanned mission to explore whether the Red Planet was capable of harboring life from next year to 2011 due to technical problems.

What it does

A Twitter application that goes by a suitable name, Twilert enables its users to receive regular e-mail updates of tweets that mention their brands, products or services. This way, those who are implementing an ad campaign can gauge its efficacy at every level and act in due time, whereas individual users who want to keep posted on the latest buzz on the Twitterverse are also going to appreciate this service.

In order to use this system, all you have to do is furnish your e-mail address when prompted. There is no need to submit Twitter account information, because (as the title of the review indicated) the updates are entirely handled via e-mail. Once you have submitted this information all that’s left for you to do is choose the keyword or keywords that interest you and away you go.

Although the concept that lies at the heart of this Twitter-related application is a simple one, it can’t be denied that as a service it will come in more than handy for those who need or like to explore every available channel. If any of the preceding applies to you, you can get started by clicking on the link which is displayed below.


In their own words

“Twilert is a Twitter application that lets you receive regular email updates of tweets containing your brand, product, service, well any keyword you like really.”

Why it might be a killer

It is a simple yet effective solution which is provided at no cost.

Some questions

How can this service be furthered and expanded?

Link: http://www.twilert.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/twilert-com-twitter-search-alerts-via-e-mail

 

PC World - Yahoo's lab in India is developing technology that will summarize information about web search results rather than simply offer links as search engines currently do.

After arriving at the first Senate hearing by private jet, GM's Rick Wagoner is looking to feign innovation and a commitment to frugality by driving a Chevy Volt prototype to Washington and past the camera crews awaiting his arrival. The obvious stunt meant to reverse public opinion in GM's bid for bailout cash will put Wagoner behind the wheel of the Volt prototype for just a fraction of the 355 mile journey. Good thing too, because without the infrastructure required to support electric vehicles, Wagoner's Volt would only last about 40 miles on battery before the fuel burning engine kicked in to maintain enough charge to drive the powertrain. Instead, the GM exec will begin his journey from Detroit in a hybrid Malibu capable of just 24/32 MPG city/highway. We just hope that the Saturns and dilapidated Chevettes he sees abandoned along America's rust-belt provides the man with ample reminder of GM's previous failures to revolutionize from within. Oh, sorry Rick was that too mean?

P.S. The car pictured above is a non-functional 2011 Volt prototype that will be parked in DC upon Wagoner's arrival.

[Via Detroit Free Press]

Filed under: Transportation

GM chief to drive Chevy Volt in search of $18 billion handout originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yahoo India is developing information extraction technology that will offer abstracts of URLs when users do a search.

Amazon released its previously announced Public Data Sets web service this evening. The project encourages developers, researchers, universities and businesses to upload large (non-confidential) data sets to Amazon - things like census data, genomes, etc. - and then let others integrated that data into their own AWS applications.

Previously, Amazon says, large data sets like the Human Genome or U.S. Census data required “many hours to located, download and customize,” but that developers can now access and start computing on this data within minutes. Data is hosted for free.

Data sets available today include an Annotated Human Genome, a public database of chemical structures, various census data and labor statistics.

There are other for-profit projects that are trying to help people tap into large public data sets. San Francisco-based Swivel is one that launched in late 2006.

Perhaps someone can now upload all those now-public iFund applications to Amazon.

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In their own words

“Your one-stop shop for everything to do with college search and selection.”

Why it might be a killer

Those undergoing the delicate process of choosing the right campus will find such a resource enticing and useful.

What it does

Choosing the right campus is not necessarily an easy task – in fact, it can determine how you academic career will shape up in no small proportion. As such, it merits exhaustive research and more than a fair share of considerations. As any other endeavor, such a task is simplified by the WWW and the site we are discussing right now stands as a prime example.

As its name unequivocally denotes, this site is an online database made up of contributions put forward by the ones who know best - those who are currently attending that school or college.

In addition to browsing through the many reviews that are posted and weighing them up, you can resort to a series of tools such as a “Match Me Meter” that aims to find the right school for you in a more or less instant fashion, and a “What are my chances calculator?”. The latter is useful for keeping your hopes realistic and being aware of where your main chances lie.

Of course, other tools like the ever-important financial aid calculator and a calendar with e-mail alerts are prominently featured and can be employed right away. As you can see, the site is awash with features and resources that hopefully will bring a good start to some of the most memorable years of your life.

Some questions

How often are new contents added to the site?

Link: http://www.campuscompare.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/campuscompare-com-campus-research-made-simple

 

That is one fugly search bar that YouTube addeded without warning to embedded videos. And the site itself has a facelift, one that I’m not loving:

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Proximic has developed technology enabling users to point-and-click on a piece of text to get relevant search results, making it easier for mobile users to conduct complex queries.

It's no secret Google has been pinching pennies. While engineering still matters, revenue generation is in the driver's seat.

CNET - The Wall Street Journal has artfully assembled a collection mostly public indicators that Google is trying to rein in its expenses, but there are a few nuggets of note about the near-mythic company coming down to earth.

Proximic announced the general availability of Proximic Agents, a mobile application that enables consumers to search for information on Apple??s iPhone. Proximic executives say the application represents a breakthrough in language-independent search.

Daniel Reed, a senior Microsoft executive, speaks out on the need for federal funding for basic research and on the transition to parallel programming.

The search portal run by the for-profit, Wikia, seems to be unavailable about 10 percent of the time, though that number may have been much higher earlier in the week.

Google may get three times more search traffic than Yahoo, but, SearchWiki aside, most of the innovation seems to be coming from Yahoo and Microsoft’s Live Search as they strive to gain a larger slice of the search market share.

Last year Yahoo introduced Search Assist, an advanced autocomplete feature that recommends related searches as you type your query into the search box. Autocomplete isn’t a new concept - Google has offered it for years through Firefox and its browser toolbar (and recently integrated it into its homepage). But Yahoo takes it a step further, going beyond just guessing what word you’re typing by suggesting possible related searches.

Today the site is introducing thumbnail previews for its image searches, allowing users to see how they should modify their queries to get the set of images they’re looking for. For example, typing “Obama” presents suggested searches for “Obama family”, “Barack Obama”, and “Michelle Obama”, each accompanied by a thumbnail indicative of what the query will yield. After trying a few searches of my own it’s easy to see how this could come in handy, especially when it comes to searching for queries with multiple, very different meanings (like “Sierra Nevada”, the beer or the mountain range). That said, the feature is a little quirky - oftentimes I had to refresh the page if I wanted any suggestions to appear.

Meanwhile, earlier this week Microsoft’s Live Search introduced the ability to use an image itself to search for similar images.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

San Francisco, Dec 3 : Britney Spears was more popular than US president-elect Barack Obama among internet searches through 2008, according to web portal Yahoo.