Sunday, January 28, 2007

Identity: Brilliant Presentation

Are you sick of registering on so many different sites? Wouldn't it be wonderful if you didn't have to but were able to magically re-use your identity (which is hopefully just one!) at various different sites?

Check out this presentation on this topic by Dick Hardt, CEO of Sxip. Even if you know very little about this topic the presentation style is very interesting and impressive. Don't miss!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

MS Vista & Office 2007

The completely new interface in Office 2007 is shocking to say the least. A ubiquitous software like Office thrives on the fact that practically everyone knows how to use it. The dramatically new interface no matter how good is bound to scare the low skilled user and the power users are likely to stay with what they are already comfortable. All the Office file formats have an "i" at the end. Its now ".doci" instead of "doc". There are bound to be other such compatibility issues once you delve deeper.

As for Vista there are enough signs that its Mac-like OS, but a few years late. Coupled with the need for more high-powered hardware, a Vista upgrade makes little sense. MS is really starting to sound and act like IBM of the past!

Google Killer?

Check out this write up on Wikia. Its an interesting concept and I think it makes a lot of sense. When you search for something very specific (on Google, Yahoo etc.) it is very painful to have to dig through the search results. There is so much content coming online every second and the search engines are using their proprietary algorithms to index and sort the content. Search would be so much more effective if "somehow" the collective knowledge of the Internet users can also be tapped to aid the search process (in addition to all the search algorithms). I think such a solution has applications even within an enterprise and not necessarily from the perspective of a generic Internet user. The open source approach to developing this solution is simply amazing.

It remains to be seen how it all plays out. Certainly a long way from becoming a Google Killer. Even if it doesn't turn into one, its highly possible that an off-shoot of it might emerge to challenge the king of search?

Btw, I didn't see any mention of how Wikia (which is for-profit as opposed to Wikipedia) plans to make money!