The New Youtube Edu
At a glance, it looks like the same old YouTube, nothing special except the black “youtube edu logo”, What is interesting is the new Directory menu, showing a list of schools, which are actually youtube Channels..
Accordingly it was a volunteer project by a group of employees who wanted a better way to collect educational contents uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities.
After Banning YouTube, Military Launches TroopTube
The U.S. military, with help from Seattle startup Delve Networks, has launched a video-sharing Web site for troops, their families and supporters, a year and a half after restricting access to YouTube and other video sites.
TroopTube, as the new site is called, lets people register as members of one of the branches of the armed forces, family, civilian Defense Department employees or supporters. Members can upload personal videos from anywhere with an Internet connection, but a Pentagon employee screens each for taste, copyright violations and national security issues.
Microsoft turns Windows Live into a social network
Microsoft this week unveiled a slew of new online services that essentially transforms its Windows Live site into a social network.
The changes, which include updated photo sharing, e-mail and instant messaging capabilities, have received mostly positive reviews from Web 2.0 industry observers.
Google Earth plumbs the depths of the oceans
Google Earth, the online mapping service that offers a bird’s-eye view of the globe, will now let users see underwater landscapes from around the world.
The new feature lets people go on a virtual dive, seeing some of the most endangered marine spots on the planet. The software, which can be downloaded now, comes with video streams, photo galleries and stories from marine protected areas across the globe.
It has been produced as part of the Google Earth Outreach programme, which gives charities and campaign groups access to Google’s data and programming resources. Previous projects have shown the sites of attacks on refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan and the environmental impact of mining in the Appalachian Mountains.
YouTube flips switch on new sales channel
SAN FRANCISCO – Online video leader YouTube has opened up its version of a home shopping network in its latest effort to wring more revenue from its massive audience and justify the $1.76 billion that Google Inc. paid for the site two years ago.
In the new service, unveiled Tuesday in the United States, there will be buttons under YouTube videos to offer viewers a chance to buy music, movies, TV shows, concert tickets and other products featured or mentioned in a particular clip.
Google unveils Moderator: crowd-source good questions
Heath used an example scenario to explain his vision for Moderator: “How many city council meetings have you been to? How about school boards? There are always questions you may have about the running of your city, town, state, etc. I believe a public application like Moderator can make civil participation significantly higher in local governments.”
Right now, Moderator is a fairly one-dimensional product. Any user can sign up to create a “Series,” tied to an event or venue for which he or she would like to solicit questions. Multiple users can be invited to be the “owner” of a series and moderate the questions that are submitted; users who don’t have or want Google accounts can submit questions anonymously if a Series owner allows it. Users then vote on questions, bringing a Digg-style social voting aspect as the questions with the best votes float to the top of the page.
Google launches Yahoo ‘facts’ site
Google is launching a new website aimed at countering critics of its impending advertising deal with Yahoo.
The Yahoo-Google Facts site provides the company’s argument for the deal, and hits back at anti-competition claims made by others within the advertising and regulatory industries.
Containing Google’s own arguments for the deal as well as supporting quotes from various sources, the site aims to counter the parade of companies that have come out against the deal in recent days.
The new site is the latest in a public relations push by Google to drum up support. Earlier this week, the company launched a blog offensive by its executives.
Book Search spreads its wings with new partnerships and tools
You probably know that you can use Google Book Search to search the full text of books — and that, thanks to universal search, you can find many of these books doing a regular Google search as well.
Today, we’re announcing a new set of partnerships and tools to bring even more books to the people who are looking for them. We’ve partnered with booksellers like Books-a-Million, Buy.com, and Borders.com to allow their customers to browse previews of books right on the retailer’s website. We’ve also extended this functionality to libraries, publishers, and social book sites like GoodReads. And, to make sure we didn’t miss anyone, we’re releasing a powerful set of APIs, which make it easier for web developers and site owners to enable this functionality on their own sites, as well.
Yahoo begins radical home page overhaul
SUNNYVALE, California–Yahoo is moving ahead on Thursday with a radical redesign of its home page–the most heavily trafficked site on the Web–making changes that give users a personalized view of the wider Web.
The Internet media giant is under the gun to deliver on year-old promises to transform Yahoo from a network of more or less insular properties into “starting points” that help consumers quickly navigate their way to the rest of the Web.
“We are going to put what matters to you most at your fingertips,” said Tapan Bhat, the senior vice president in charge of “front doors”–the main destinations at Yahoo, including Yahoo.com, MyYahoo and the Yahoo toolbar.
Yahoo Launches Social Network — In India
Yahoo India announced that it has launched yet another social network for the 16-24 age bracket in an attempt to capture the growing market in India. And although scant details are available, it sounds interesting.
Dubbed SpotM, the new social network will bring college-aged and those close to going to college together in one space. There’s no word on how Yahoo will be able to ensure everyone using the service is really as old as they claim, but Yahoo believes it can manage that problem.
SpotM attempts to differentiate itself by offering two features: the idea of a secret friend and SMS integration with anonymous chat. According to Yahoo, SpotM will allow users to make friends with other users and if they choose, make those friends private so other users don’t know about the relationship. SMS integration with anonymous chat will let users correspond via SMS without revealing their phone number.