Who knew-ooVoo?

So, my little brother told me about this new thing called ooVoo. It is a camming software like Skype. It has many of the same features, but here are a few differences.

One, ooVoo has a premium feature that allows five people to talk at once. Yes, this feature costs money, but at least it is available to those who want it. Skype has no such feature.

Two, ooVoo has a much sleeker interface when camming. The two pictures (the callee and the caller) are both the same size and tilted inward. It gives the impression of depth and creates an overall better calling experience.

Three, ooVoo has a web-call in feature. In short, you don’t have to download anything to “ooVoo” someone. Simply click on this link and enter your name and boom, you are camming with me. No downloads, no fuss. This feature and this feature alone makes ooVoo worth it for me.

So, check it out. Compare and contrast for yourself and see if you aren’t saying “Who knew? ooVoo!”

Wired Weekend-3

Your favorite search engine just got a shot of Caffeine.

06:59PM

So, if you want to find something on the web, what do you do? Most users will answer “Google it”. Google, for the majority of surfers, is the preferred search engine. It has a catchy logo, minimalistic design, and provides the user easy to understand search results. Recently Microsoft has thrown a lot more weight, a.k.a. money, into the mix by promoting their own search engine: Bing.

Not to be outdone, Google is in the midst of testing a brand new version of their search engine codenamed “Caffeine”. (Since this blog is aimed at novice users, not power ones, I am not going to enter into great detail. For more in depth info, you can visit Mashable.) I will say is that this new “Caffeine” boost for Google should provided the average user with three noticeable improvements: Time, Relevance, and Quantity

Time: You should notice that when you do a search it should contain more timely information from the webpage. If a webmaster updates his website, it should be picked up and indexed by Google quicker than before.

Relevance: Results should be even more relevant to your query than ever before.

Quantity: My own test showed that when doing a search for the word “Test”, Google gave me 712,000,000 results. The same search in Caffeine gave me over 840,000,000 results. Over 100 million more webpages. That’s a lot of new information to be at your fingertips.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have a Microsoft Live Account (now known as Bing), a Yahoo Account and a Google Account. When I started browsing the web, I used AltaVista as my primary search engine, hotmail as my primary email, AIM as my primary IM program and Yahoo has my primary cam to cam software. I never used Google. Today, my primary email and primary search engine are Google; Blogger (a Google Program) is what I use to host my blog, and I use Skype or Google Talk when I cam or IM. Now, go enjoy your caffeine.

Currently listening to: Blind Melon– No Rain