Archive for December, 2006

I rarely get excited about a new site or improvements on an old one, but this change has converted me within two minutes. Ask.com formerly AskJeeves is the web search engine from IAC Search & Media.

So I was trolling digg as I usually do and came across a link that Ask.com has a new beta out. Having seen how crappy Ask.com was before I thought anything must be an improvement, so I checked it out. I must say it is brilliant! Do a websearch for a town and on the sidebar you get the weather and time as well as facts and search results. Does Google do this? No!

Some people may claim it would cause allot of clutter, well Ask has done it so it doesn’t. The layout flows and all it’s functions, which it has allot of includes inbuilt Wikipedia functionality. Sometimes I do a Google search wanting Wikipedia results and cannot be bothered changing the search engine in Firefox, so this is great for me.

This upgrade is better than expected and even with the front page having a less than desirable gradient, the search results are on the white background so it is only the home page which has it. Not much of a problem really and it is a beta so you bet they will probably change it after hearing feedback.

I would suggest giving it a go, take a look at www.askx.com, it is the betas site and after you visit it when you go to ask.com it will be the new beta style from now on. You could also just use www.ask.com/?ax=5 which also works.

Happy 100th to my Great Grandma Lily today. 100 Years of age is a rare and brilliant age to make it to. She is still very active going out to her local library and stores occasionally. Has a great sense of humor and has always been brilliant to me. I was her first great grandchild and she never thought she would see one yet alone four now so congratulations.

My puppy Lucy turns a whole one year old on December 24th so happy birthday to her to.

Well I find myself not posting to my blog as much as I used to. This time of the year is busier than usual with plans for Christmas and just a more rushed time in the family. Also things at Negative Penguin Media are changing considerately. I am not going to go into details but saying a massive shakeup has happened is a under statement. Fortunately what we have from 2007 is a much better arrangement for all involved in my opinion.

Bushfires have engulfed my state lately due to the drought and awfully hot weather of late. The whole of the state has been under smoke the last few weeks on and off. It smells and it is hard to see very far. It has caused family and friends much concern for those with athsma and breathing difficulties.

I will most likely post a quick note just before Christmas but if I don’t have a good holiday whatever you celebrate and stay safe.