Google owned Youtube is testing new code for playing/embedding videos. The new code uses an iframe and actually embeds the video using HTML 5, meaning it doesn’t require flash, or any other plugins at all. Pretty cool!
The video will only play in HTML5 if certain conditions are met, such as the user having opted in, and the video not containing ads.
Another interesting update for Youtube recently was support for 4k resolution videos. While 1080p is 1920×1080 resolution, 4k is a whopping 4096×3072! Unfortunately most processors/graphics cards can’t even handle it yet, mine certainly doesn’t To try it out just change the video mode on the Youtube player for applicable videos to ‘Original.’
I remember reading about this a long time ago and only just saw that it has gone live:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
The idea is that you ask a question, and unlike Google where you are (usually) presented with a list of potentially relevant resources, you are given an answer. It still doesn’t understand a lot of things but presumably will improve over time. However, as far as ‘ask engines’ go, Wolfram is very promising and powerful.
As a test one of the first questions I asked was “how many employees does telus have?”, here’s the Google response:
Thus far the iPad is performing particularly well as an E-Commerce device. Online stores which are not optimized for mobile devices have an average conversion rate of 0.37% but the iPad is converting up to 2.04%. For some online stores the iPad is converting at double the standard PC rate. This increase could at least partially be attributed to the majority of iPad owners being technically savvy and comfortable buying online, only time will tell, but the results are still looking quite strong.
Google recently purchased a company named Plink, a company focused on creating image-based search engines. The initial concept allows users to identify a piece of artwork simply by taking a photo of it with their phone, but the possibilities for visual search seem limitless:
Struggling Palm has been bought out by Hewlett-Packard according to the HP website. This will allow HP to make a strong move into the Smartphone marketplace.
Palm shares closed Tuesday at $4.63 but after the announcement that HP would pay $5.70 per share have climbed over 25% to $5.83 in after hours trading.
Facebook recently released a new feature called ‘Like’ which allows you to put a thumbs-up Like button on your site. When a user clicks the button, a ‘xxx likes this content” message is posted on the users Facebook wall. You can see an example under the video here: Top 10 Biggest and Best Jumps EVER
There is also a Like box which allows users to like your site and become a fan of your Facebook page (i.e. they will receive updates via Facebook in the future). You can see an example at the bottom of the sidebar here: Super Stoker
One of the best features is the Like recommendation feature. At first I actually didn’t pay too much notice to it because I was more interested in the button and box, but it’s actually a great tool. If you look in the sidebar here you will see the ‘Recent Likes’ which shows the top ‘Liked’ content from the recent past:
Here’s all the detailed Facebook info for developers which shows how to get this going on your site. There are two options for coding, I chose the iframe because I’ve had problems with the XFBML not validating. However the iframe also needs to have the allowtransparency stripped out of it for validation. Like Button – Facebook Developers
To try it out just change the video mode on the Youtube player for applicable videos to ‘Original.’
