Navin Israni wants to stay in touch on LinkedIn
| I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. - Navin Israni
|
© 2010, LinkedIn Corporation
Navin Israni //
| I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. - Navin Israni
|
© 2010, LinkedIn Corporation
Google's vice-president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer said in an Interview to the UK Telegraph about a whole new bunch of search innovations currently being worked upon. What are these? Translated search, social/personalized search and intuitive search. Here's what Mayer has to say about these three projects.
"Imagine what it would be like if there was a tool built into the search engine which translated my search query into every language and then searched the entire world's websites And then invoked the translation software a second and third time - to not only then present the results in your native language, but then translated those sites in full when you clicked through." Mayer told to Telegraph.
What it does is that helps break language barriers. It helps move beyond Web dominated entirely by English and makes regional reach possible.Conversely, It allows non-english content to have a more global reach.
"We want Google to be the most accurate reference tool which allows people to search the web and each have an individual experience," Mayer told the Telegraph. The Telegraph's Emma Barnett identifies social network friend connections as a key part of this. "Right now Google can only include the updates and information from these networks if the users' privacy settings are 'public'," the reporter writes. "According to Mayer - the ideal will be to get access to your friend's updates in search."
Mayer: "Understanding the social network structure and the permission rules around social networks status updates when they are not public - will really empower us in terms of search."
But getting access to Facebook's social graph is another matter. Google doesn't leverage Facebook Connect anywhere in any of its products. So far, company's experiments with Social Search have been small in scope, but impressive.
But If it was all that easy, it probably would already have happened. Microsoft, meanwhile, may seek to do similar with Bing.
Mayer seems to be telling the Telegraph that recommendation is going to be a big part of Google's future. Intuitive search sounds pretty far-out,but Barnett writes that it may be closer than we think.
Barnett says:"Mayer wants Google to be capable of presenting information to users before they even know what they're looking for. Amazingly she doesn't think her team are that far away from achieving what she calls the 'omnivorous' search engine -i.e. one which is able to take a user's total context - where they are, what they were just reading, which direction their mobile phone is pointed and so on."
Mayer: "You could have some information waiting for you when you turn on your computer or some relevant URLs forming part of your browser background (presumably if you use Chrome - Google's browser) or on your side wiki".
Last week Google demoed a mobile search product that automatically recommends categories you might want to search for and gives you a way to find nearby restaurants, etc. with a single click. So all this about Intutive Search seems cool, but not surprising.
Search Engines are often limited by inability of Humans to explain what they want. Search queries are expected to be short and precise. Search Enginges leave behind many of the signals we emit implicitly - like location, click-stream history, time we spend on a web page (signals our interest in it) and more.
The future of search may very well be based largely on our implicit behavioral data. This is the direction the Search Engines are moving in.
What are your views on Google's Search Innovations? Let's discuss it here.
If you are a Twitter user in India, then on Saturday 12th December in evening you must have seen almost a whole deluge of tweets regarding the Battibandh Campaign. The Campaign is essentially an Indian version of an international green initiative in which (primarily) houses switch off their lights for one hour for purpose of contributing to conservation of energy. The idea here is to make a mass cut in energy consumption so as to make some substantial contribution to the cause of curbing Global Warming.
I too got a whole stream of tweets mentioning #battibandh. But somewhere I saw the time is 7:30 - 8:30 PM and some said its 8:30 - 9:30 PM.
Well first of all, let me show my praise for the campaign. I believe it has huge potential and could make a significant contribution to its cause,if only it was planned that well.
During that evening when I was on Twitter, Anushka Manachanda ( @IAmAnushka ), the Golmaal-singer sent a tweet saying that she was going to a Jewellery exhibtion of a friend and said that she wondered whether they would switch off the lights at this time. and that followed a whole series of interesting tweets between me ( @smallcityguy ) and Anushka. I felt that Exhibition Gallery and the Jewellery Designer were only doing there business and it would be totally absurd to ask them to switch of lights. In reply, Anushka tweeted me the following solutions to it :
@smallcityguy well,I think any exhibitions would get moved back or forward by a day & concerts would get pre & postponed @battibandh
@smallcityguy Just like on a public holiday.Streetlights would remain on and residential buildings would switch off. @battibandh
@smallcityguy Restaurants could do special candle-lit dinners and societies could organise sing-song sessions.And shops/malls? @battibandh
I think if we can plan it all the way Anushka said, why not plan its publicity all in advance? I mean seriously. You have a campaign, which if people follow, will cause them to change their weekend plans and you are informing them right on the day of campaign? What sort of campaign is this?
Had the idea of this campaign been put into public domain during Diwali or at least one month after it, it could have made sizeable amount of impact. Let's say just after Diwali, the campaign could have been like this. "You used a lot of Lights during Diwali, now will you please turn them off for just one hour to save your own Planet Earth?". This campaign line or something similar (but more aggressive, more creative perhaps) could have been used since Diwali make the Battibandh Campaign more effective.
Now that I have nearly finished this blog post, Anushka tells me that they announce the date in advance and that the campaign is in its 3rd year. Well, I know it may well be its 3rd Year, but I never came to know off the dates in advance. I came to know about #battibandh only when I logged onto Twitter
All I am saying is that, I heardly saw any publicity of the campaign on Twitter (forget TV or Radio) prior to 12th December. With this level of publicity, you cant expect business and homes (or individuals) to act follow this campaign. We must not forget that Mumbai is a busy city and that most people are ignorant to campaigns like these. And a part of reselience that Mumbaikars show after these terrorist attacks actually means they are simply ignoring all this and moving on with heir lives. With this sort of attitude of Mumbaikars, the only way to make campaigns like #battibandh effective is to make aggressive publicity so that the idea of the campaign sits well in their mind and makes their conscience notice the hours and act for it. Simply telling some good influential celebs on Twitter to RT the tweets, won't work on the grassroot level..!!
My Suggestion is to tap the popularity of that show on SAB "Taarak Mehte ka Ooltah Chashma". That show has enormous following in all small towns all over the country. So why not use it to get accross the real message of the campaign to the people?
yes..!! You heard it right..!! Mixed Doubles has now been included in Olympics alongwith all other 4 events!! I am so excited to hear this!!
These are the official words as on ITFTennis.com :
"The requested change came from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as part of the IOC’s systematic review of the Olympic programme.
The changes reflect the IOC’s desire to continually refresh the programme, as well as its commitment to increase women’s participation.The inclusion of the mixed doubles event will not increase the current number of athletes but will bring an added value to the Olympic programme by providing another opportunity for men and women to compete together on the same field of play." and more blah..blah..blah!!
I am actually more excited the way ATPWorldTour.com has posted Sania and Mahesh Bhupathi playing pic as an Image for this article. I just love the way the have used Sania'a Photo..!!
But after all the excitement, I am also worried about how cramped the schedule will now become. I remember exactly what happened with Sania at 2006 Doha Asiad. Sania had been playing refreshed right from the start and that paid off in the form of a Mixed Doubles Gold Medal with Leander Paes, Indian Women's Team winning a Silver and Sania herself winning a Silver in Singles Finals against Jie Zheng (CHN). It was after that 64 16 61 loss in Singles finals that she said "I was tired in the 3rd set after having played 2 matches or sometimes even three matches every day for 10 days non-stop!!".
My concern goes for all the players who will play all the 3 events. They must do something to give these players a break in the middle of match playing days, just like the normal tour events.
( originally By Gregg Keizer | ComputerWorld )
Microsoft today claimed that its next browser, IE9 has nearly closed the JavaScript performance gap between itself and rivals made by Mozilla and Google, even though the browser has been in development only a few weeks.
Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's president of Windows and Windows Live, acknowledged that Microsoft had catching up to do. "We know we have a lot of work to do in some areas of performance," Sinofsky said today at the PDC (Professional Developers Conference).
"On SunSpider, we're on par with IE9," Sinofsky said, showing a chart that displayed scores from the popular JavaScript benchmarking suite. Although IE9's scores were still slightly higher -- and thus slower -- than the newest browsers from competitors, its numbers were significantly better than IE8, Microsoft's current production edition.
"We're getting very close to the other browsers," said Sinofsky.
Sinofsky did not talk about a release schedule for IE9, or when a public preview would be available -- killing rumors that had circulated earlier this week that Microsoft might issue an early build to PDC attendees -- saying that the new browser had been in development only for the "last three weeks, since we released Windows 7.
Its about Little Ralphy...who knows more than what he should at his age..
( via @Anaggh )
Little Ralphy on Math
A teacher asks her class, 'If there are 5 birds sitting on a fence and you shoot one of them, how many will be left?'
She calls on little Ralphy.
To which Little RALPHY replied, 'The correct answer is 'the one with the wedding ring on,' but I like your thinking.'
Little RALPHY returns from school and says he got an F in arithmetic.
'Why?' asks the father? 'The teacher asked 'How much is 2x3,'' I said '6', replies RALPHY. 'But that's right!' says his dad. 'Yeah, but then she asked me 'How much is 3x2?'' 'What's the f...... difference?' asks the father.
'That's what I said!'
Little Raphy on Getting Older
Little RALPHY was sitting on a park bench munching on one candy bar after another.
After the 6th one a man on the bench across from him said, 'Son, you know eating all that candy isn't good for you. It will give you acne, rot your teeth, and make you fat.'
Little RALPHY replied, 'My grandfather lived to be 107 years old.'
The man asked, 'Did your grandfather eat 6 candy bars at a time?'
Little RALPHY answered, 'No, he minded his own f....... business.
I Love Little Ralphy!!!!!
( Read Full >> CAUTION : Rated A+ )
Here's a list of 140 Google interview questions. See If you can crack it.(Hint : Try as per your desired Job Role.Otherwise, you will end up scratching your head)
This is only an extracted piece of Questions from somewhere in the middle of the original article.
Answers page also has Questions. Read this and you will realize where do you stand...;-)
Singles Round Robin GroupsGroup A
(1) Roger Federer
(4) Andy Murray
(5) Juan Martin del Potro
(7) Fernando Verdasco
My Thoughts :
It will be great to see Murray and Verdasco battle it our against each other.We all want to see something like the Aussie Open 2009 QF.Verdasco was at his peak back then.Hope He has enough gas in his tank to avenge his loss to Murray in Valencia few week back.
Del Potro is looking highly unlikely to move into SFs given his level of match play before the Finals.My pick is Roger Federer and Andy Murray for SFs..
On the other hand, Rafa has got a group where everyone has been active in the post-US Open fall season.All three : Djokovic, Davydenko n World Tour Finals Debutante Robin Soderling too is looking dangerous.This group is really hard to predict.Being a hardcore Rafan, I wud personally like to see Rafa in SFs.
Not to Forget : Both Rafa n Verdasco also have to play Davis Cup Finals after this.So, their season doesnt end immediately after this. Blame the ATP for all this mess.They are hardly getting one month off. This is torturous on players
Doubles Round Robin GroupsGroup A
(1) Daniel Nestor/Nenad Zimonjic
(3) Mahesh Bhupathi/Mark Knowles
(5) Frantisek Cermak/Michal Mertinak
(7) Max Mirnyi/Andy Ram
My Thoughts :
I cant see anyone else except Nestor / Zimonjic lifting the crown. As an Indian, I am happy to see Bhupathi / Knowles and Paes / Dlouhy in different groups. But I think Bhupathi is too much involved in his business. Why doesnt he retire? He clearly doesnt look interested any more in Tennis. On the other hand, you can always expect a surprise from Leander Paes, especially when there is no news of him being injured.
Watch out for : Lukasz Kubot / Olivier Marach here. Kubot has been in red-hot form recently in Singles. I expect him to carry it forward here in London
What are your thoughts guys? Any predictions in Doubles? I havent been following Doubles lately. So I wud like to see some discussion on Doubles. And my money is on Djokovic for Singles, Who is your pick?
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who have built one of the greatest rivalries in the history of tennis, are locked in a two-man battle to be crowned 2009 ATP World Tour Champion at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
The player finishing No. 1 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings at the conclusion of the circuit finale, which begins Sunday, will clinch the prestigious 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title. Federer ruled as ATP World Tour Champion for four years between 2004-2007 before Nadal snapped the streak last season.
Federer’s quest to win the battle has historical significance. Only one player in the history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings has ever held, lost and then regained the ATP World Tour Champion title. Ivan Lendl held the year-end No. 1 South African Airways ATP Ranking between 1985-87 and finished second behind Mats Wilander in 1988 before reclaiming top spot at the end of 1989.
That Nadal remains in contention to challenge Federer for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title is stunning. Playing his opening match at last week’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, Nadal’s hopes of staying within reach of Federer looked all but gone when Nicolas Almagro led his fellow Spaniard by a set and 5-4, 40/0. But Nadal rallied and eventually saved five match points in the game before breaking Almagro’s serve. Nadal somehow conjured a victory (after again trailing in the third set) and then saw the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion battle with Federer re-ignite later the same day when the Swiss suffered a shock opening-round loss to Frenchman Julien Benneteau.Nadal now trails Federer by 945 points. It sounds like a lot of ground to make up, but with 1,500 points on offer to any undefeated champion in London, it’s not an insurmountable gap.
Here are the key scenarios in the battle for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title:
1. If Nadal is an undefeated champion at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (winning all-three round-robin matches, a semi-final and final) he will earn the maximum 1,500 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win all three round-robin matches OR reach the final to beat out Nadal for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title.
2. If Nadal goes 2-1 in round-robin play and wins the title he will earn 1,300 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win two round-robin matches OR win one round-robin match and reach the final to beat out Nadal for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title.
3. If Nadal goes 3-0 in round-robin play, wins his semi-final but loses the final he will earn 1,000 points. If that happens, Federer would need only to win one round-robin match to beat out Nadal for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title.
Working against Nadal’s chances are the respective ATP World Tour Finals records of both players. Federer boasts one of the greatest records at the season finale with a 27-5 match record, including four titles from five straight finals between 2003-07. Nadal, however, is yet to play his best tennis at the event. In two appearances in 2006-07 he went 2-1 in round-robin play but fell in the semi-finals. Let's Hope for the Best..I am supporting Rafa..Who are you with..Rafa or Fed or any1 else from the remaining Six..??
