Thai search engine Isara seeks new name!

October 22nd, 2009 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Charity, Global, Verticals | No Comments »

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Isara’s mission is to positively impact communities in the areas of education, safety, environmental awareness, and to promote personal effectiveness through global web-based interaction and local volunteerism.

Isara Charity Organization provides help directly to those who are in need. The help comes in the form of free resources and scholarships for education, campaigns and tools for personal safety, opportunities for improving environmental conditions and for fostering increased personal effectiveness through interactive projects with web-based users and local volunteers. There is no middleman brokering funding or projects. Isara creates its own projects together with local communities and web-based users of Isara.org, with 100% of its revenues being utilized to that purpose.

In 2008 Isara Charity won a Thailand Humanitarian award for it’s efforts in their country.

Each day we add more and more web pages to our index/database (1+ million per day) and each day we are getting closer to our goal of 100 million pages.

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Until then we want to invite everyone to help us name Isara’s non-profit search engine.

As sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing have proven, the name doesn’t necessarily need to mean anything or explain what the site is about. It can be a fun word, a word from a different language, or a word that you invented.

Please check to see if the domain name is available (.org and .com) before you post it, keep it simple to spell and easy to say, and make it as short as possible (1-2 syllables).

Can’t wait to hear your ideas!

Source: Isara.org

Search for the cheapest books with BookLookr

October 22nd, 2009 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Shopping, Verticals | 2 Comments »

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BookLookr is a price comparison site which finds the cheapest retailers for the books you’re looking for.

It is a book comparison engine that thoroughly searches the world’s best merchants in order to find you the very best prices on the book you’re looking for.

BookLookr compares prices from Amazon, eBay, Half.com, Chegg and Better World Books to give you the best possible price for the books you’re looking for. All you have to do to get started is enter a title, author name, ISBN or keyword.

epoThe Great Impersonation
E. Phillips Oppenheim
ISBN: 1920265643

Results will be processed and displayed to you, showing the most relevant results first.

After you view the results simply click the book title or the “Get Prices” button on the right hand side of the results. This will automatically find the top 5 lowest prices–from whichever vendors are offering the best deals.

No more searching multiple sites one by one for multiple books or wasting countless hours at the computer scouting for a deal. BookLookr allows you to search the web’s top online vendors all at once in order to find the very best deals on your books.

Does It Really Find The Cheapest Textbooks?

Absolutely! BookLookr was designed to help you find cheap college textbooks by allowing you to compare cheap textbook prices across the web’s top online vendors. BookLookr will search for your title, compare prices and only deliver the cheapest possible prices from each site and sort them descending by their price–the cheapest options first and the more expensive options below it.

Source: BookLookr.com

Global search engine Glearch wins two web awards

October 22nd, 2009 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Global, News, Updates | 1 Comment »

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Globalization Partners International (GPI), a leading provider of website, software and documentation translation services in over 100 languages, announced today that “Glearch”, its new search engine launched this year has won both a 2009 Web Marketing Association (WMA) Standard of Excellence Award AND a Gold Award from the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA)-W3 Awards.

More than 2,000 sites from 45 countries were reviewed in 96 industry categories for the WMA Awards and less than 10% of entries to the IAVA-W3 Awards receive Gold Awards each year.

“Glearch” (Global + Search) is a mega-search engine for international business professionals, travelers, translators, students, researchers and anyone else who needs to easily search the web by language, by country, and by search engine,” says Yasser Ahmed, Web Development Lead, GPI.

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“Glearch’s global map-based interface and compilation of country specific facts, web resources, maps, newspapers and top sites are at the core of the mega-search utility,” says Marcelo Volmaro, Website Globalization Practice Director, GPI. “Our design and development teams are happy the competition judges and the general public feel the site meets the criteria to win awards including high marks in: creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design, and ease of use”.

Absinthe – Nightlife Articles for Prague, Czech Republic
Downing mouthwash and gasoline: an amateur’s guide to the green fairy of Bohemia .prague.tv/articles/nightlife/absinthe
http://prague.tv/articles/nightlife/absinthe

About The Web Awards:

The Web Marketing Association is the producer of the WebAward Competition (www.webaward.org). Now in its 13th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual website award competition that names the best Web sites in 96 industries while setting the standard of excellence for all website development.

The W³ (w3award.com ) is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, Fry Hammond Barr, HBO, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Victoria Secret, Wired, Yahoo! and many others.

Travel search engine – Unusual Hotels of the World

October 22nd, 2009 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Travel, Verticals | No Comments »

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Three friends, who had spent many years visiting & promoting destinations all over the world both personally and for corporate activities decided to create the definitive guide for the many hotels around the world that offer their guests something unusual about their stay.

Be it that guests stay underground, inside an igloo, up a tree or even underwater, Unusual Hotels of the World has set out to be the online location for travelers from around the globe to access information and subsequently book rooms at unusual and unique hotels. We believe it is most comprehensive source for unusual hotels around the world and such features a whole variety of hotels properties. Some of these properties are already known internationally, however many will be new discoveries to the majority of travellers.
Simon

Unusual Hotels of the World offers ‘experiential’ hotels. Staying there is worth the trip, which will often be long and arduous, and delivers the guest a memorable and hopefully enjoyable experience. Some are luxurious, some are not, and throughout the guide you will find a range of choices to suit the budgets of every traveller.

Unusual Hotels of the World permanently updates and features promotional deals and offers provided by guide hotels in its regular newsletters to registered users of the online guide. Sign up using the Sign Up form and join our online community.
Steve

It is impossible for the creators of Unusual Hotels of the World to personally inspect all member hotels due to the vast number of locations included in the guide. We’re getting round to as many as we can, but would be delighted to receive positive or negative feedback from hotel guests. If any hotel is receiving regular negative feedback we discuss the issues with the hotel owners and consider temporarily removing the hotel from the site subject to changes being implemented that would rectify guest feedback.
Sid

Our network of travelers contacts from around the globe. If there are properties that we have missed, please let us know and we’ll work to include them in the future. We sincerely hope that you come to appreciate the value that Unusual Hotels of the World creates for travellers and hope that you enjoy being part of our Unusual World.

Simon Penn, Steve Dobson and Sid Lalwani,
Co Founders of UHOTW

Iglu-Dorf Engelberg
Engelberg Igloo Hotel. An Igloo world in white !!!

Adrian Günter built his first igloo in 1996, to better enjoy the mountain and first powder snow of the day. Following an avalanche of interest from friends wanting to sample an igloo night, he increased the number of igloos and opened the “small world in white” in 2005, with 6 villages across Andorra, Switzerland and Germany now accepting guests.

Moving three thousand tons of snow every December to build each village, Adrian invites Inuit artists from Canada to craft sculptures inside each village. With only an ice pick, motor saw and shovel, artists produce seals, arctic wolves, polar bears and whales as well as swirling designs and patterns illuminated by candle light to look over the guests from the walls.

The villages are open from Christmas day through to the beginning of April each year, snow conditions permitting.

With 5,600 visitors in 2006, all ages have enjoyed the cosy hospitality of an expedition sleeping bag and sheepskin rug, from the youngest 19mth old baby to an 83 year old lady guest.

Positive Experiences

“This place is amazing. I went there with my fiance just after we got engaged and we spent midnight on New Year’s Eve in our own private hot tub looking up at the stars. Brush up on your German before you go though!“

Jane Clee, 29/05/2009

The Federated Search Blog – Broader contest, bigger prizes

October 22nd, 2009 by Guest Author
Posted in News | No Comments »

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Abe (founder of Deep Web Technologies and sponsor of this blog) (and this blog -ed.) and I have been talking about the contest Deep Web Technologies is sponsoring. We want it to appeal to more people, not just to people who are good at writing essays, although we appreciate good essays. So, we’re going to encourage submissions in a variety of media. If you’re video-oriented or you’re a graphic designer, or you make awesome collages, or you’re another kind of artist, we want you to submit an entry for the contest.

The sky’s the limit on the form of your submission but you do need to address the contest theme:

Tell us about the most impressive federated search application you’ve ever seen, or about one you’ve dreamed up. How innovative can federated search be? What unique problems can it solve?

Contest entries will be judged on creativity, originality, vision and relevance to the theme.

We’re doubling the cash prizes this year. Last year we gave $500, $250, and $100 to the top three winners. This year we’re giving $1000, $500, and $250 to the judge’s top picks. (Yes, the third place prize is more than doubled from last year.)

If you’re one of the first ten people to submit an entry we deem to be a serious entry then we’ll send you a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate (or $25 via PayPal if you’re outside the U.S.)

Continuing with the tradition of showering the top winner with attention, Computers in Libraries will have the winner participate on a panel in their conference next April and they will feature one or more of the winners in Computers in Libraries Magazine. Deep Web Technologies will pick up the travel and lodging expenses.

Contest winners and their entries will be featured in the Federated Search and Deep Web Technologies blogs. We may also feature other submissions. If your entry is featured and yours is not one of the top three entries selected by the judges then we’ll give you a $100 prize.

Entries are due no later than Tuesday December 15. The top three winners will be announced sometime in January.

Contest rules

  1. Contest entries will be judged on creativity, originality, vision and relevance to the theme.
  2. All entries must be original work.
  3. Entries shall not include any that have been previously commercially published. Simultaneous submissions to commercial publishers or other contests are not allowed.
  4. Entries will be judged by a panel of experts in the federated search industry.
  5. Judges will not be biased by being told whose entries they are reviewing.
  6. The decisions of the judges are final.
  7. Those submitting winning entries agree to have their entries written about in the Federated Search and Deep Web Technologies blogs.
  8. The top three winners agree to have an article about their work featured in Computers In Libraries Magazine.
  9. The first prize winner agrees to participate in a panel discussion at Computers In Libraries Conference in April 2010. Deep Web Technologies will pay travel and lodging expenses.

Eligibility

  1. Everyone is eligible to enter except individuals judging the entries, their immediate families, and employees of Deep Web Technologies and their immediate families.
  2. No entry fee is required.
  3. By entering, all entrants expressly agree to be bound by all the terms of the Contest Rules.

Time frame for contest

  1. All entries must be received before 12:01 AM Pacific Daylight Time on December 16, 2009.
  2. Winners will be announced sometime in January 2010.

Submitting your entry

  1. If your entry can be submitted via email please send it to sol dot lederman at gmail dot com. Otherwise, please contact me to arrange submission.
  2. Entries will be acknowledged by email.
  3. Entrants must provide name, email, mailing address, phone number and title for their submission.

Miscellaneous

This contest is void where prohibited by law. Any taxes due on contest winnings, levied by any taxing agency or jurisdiction are the sole responsibility of the prize winners.

We look forward to your submission!

Original post here:

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