tjameswhite.com

This shouldn’t come as a surprise: using Yahoo! Image Search, photos from Flickr abound; using Google Image Search, not so much.

For example, a simple search for “Tilley hats” yields two Flickr photos on page 1 in Yahoo and more on every subsequent results page. Missing from the results (at least the first 5 pages) are any images from Picasa Web Albums.

The same search on Google doesn’t yeild a Flickr photo until page 3. The surprising thing is that the first Flickr photo is only two spots behind the first Picasa photo.

(Perhaps the most surprising result of all is the photo in the second row on the first page of Yahoo!s results.)

(Search results are based on a search conducted May 7, 2008.)

I’ve got accounts on various social networks now. Honestly, I’m not sure what or how to use them, and some, like Twitter, I don’t see a lot of value in.

I’ve grabbed accounts though partly to claim my online ID, party to see what all the fuss is about. In fact, I set up a Twitter account just so I can SMS to My Mile Marker.

Here’s were I’m located:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr
• LibraryThing

I’ll probably try to set something up in the sidebar. I’d really like to integrate everything together. Facebook, for example, lists the other networks; I’ve got a LibraryThing plug in on this site already, and I’ll probably do the same with Twitter.

There is a new Spam attack underway and they have managed to get around the usual filters. I’ve had a few, not tons, in my inbox and last week a dozen or so comment spam were held in moderation.

And now Askimet has just proven its mettle — it has stopped 5,000 6,000 comment spam this week. For the record, since I installed the latest version of WordPress several months ago I have had a total of only about 5,000 spam comments. It just doubled in a couple of days.

Way to go Askimet!

With my new, expanded resolution and reviewing a number of posts* on designing for various resolutions, I decided to chech the stats for this site. According to Analytics, for 2006 only 3.6% of visitors to this site have had a resolution of less than 1024 X 768. That resolution accounts for 49.57%, meaning that 46.83% of visitor have even more screen realestate.

* Sources:

• Optimal width for 1024px resolution?
• 800 x 600, should I really care?
• Varying layout according to broswer width

Well, I’ve been a full-fledge facaulty member for some 3 weeks now. I’m starting to settle into the new diggs and am beginning to get comfortable with what I’m teaching. (more…)