Some innovative internet search engine! (finally!)

I have been an admirer of Google Internet Search for very long. I have to admit, however, that despite of several small features, I have seen this company lagging on innovation. I mean that they got used to have the highest share in the internet searching market, and they diversified the portfolio getting into other elements: Google News, Gmail, Blogger, Google Alerts, Google Image Search...

But the engine itself was still the same, from my basic user perspective. Then some guys went out of google and started Cuil.com a nice way to search that deals with related terms as well as literal concepts, building on what has interested others that have searched the terms before. Also, you get a small preview of the pages before you click them, so it saves some time getting you away from "404 error" sites and similar.

But yesterday I found SearchMe, a new way to search that saves you even more time in the same line that Cuil use: it shows you the pages before you actually need to click on them, and you also have a magnifying glass that helps you navigating through part of the web page without getting into it. When you do intensive internet researches as I tend to do for work, this is a real time saver which I appreciate a lot. I am not sure if they have cached as many pages as google or cuil, this is still very fine for me. From time to time, I appreciate getting less than more, so if the first 100 pages I can navigate through are not giving me the answer, I am positive that I might do a better search somehow. :)

While searching this one, I found that on top of the attractive "Cover Sliding" feature we first saw in iTunes, you can mix contents more or less in the same way Google recently allowed us to check video in the search results, but as soon as you finish up with the video, you note you are still in the same search page you were before. There must be something with the concentration you lose when you navigate away from your "basecamp" in the quest for the answers you seek in Internet that I believe this SearchMe one might well tackle too.

Go and have a look at SearchMe... interesting one!

Pertinente recordar las palabras de Bolívar de cara al referendum del 15 de Febrero!

"La continuación de la autoridad en un mismo individuo frecuentemente ha sido el término de los gobiernos democráticos. Las repetidas elecciones son esenciales en los sistemas populares, porque nada es tan peligroso como dejar permanecer largo tiempo en un mismo ciudadano el poder. El pueblo se acostumbra a obedecerle y él se acostumbra a mandarlo; de donde se origina la usurpación y la tiranía". Simón Bolívar en el Congreso de Angostura, el 15 de Febrero de 1820

Creo que es bastante explícito que Bolívar, si viviera en esta época, NO HUBIESE SIDO CHAVISTA...

Goodbye to a good year!

Thanks to everyone for the almost 800 visits I've got last year! I hope to be able to keep it up during 2009 to make the blog a more interesting one that you dare to share with others ;)

2008 was a good year, and I hope it was a good one for you guys too. Below a list of the top 5 elements that I enjoyed 2008.

1. Got married! - great party, great partner I found to share my life with. :D
2. Our honeymoon - excellent road trip through NV and CA in US, although cold caught me from beginning to end.
3. Short but meaningful visits from and to old friends - Danielito and Galan, thanks for stopping by, tíos! Same to my uncle, JJ Sr. Long time no see you! :)
4. Moving away from Venezuela. Although I am trying not to live under the shadow of my "escape" from my mother land, I cannot hide it: I wanted to move away for years now. I need some new airs... there is a lot of hope behind this movement.
5. Short visit to Seattle - seeing Brian again worth the long travel. Let's hope that the next visit is longer, though :)

Moving away... what an experience!

First week in Panama could hardly be better... A nice apartment with sort of view, small issues at the office solved in record time most of them and the great excitement of being a foreigner living abroad for the first time in my life.
I believe we will pursue later to let the kids live these experiences much earlier in their lives: summer camps, language schools, last year at a foreigner school. There is so much to see and enjoy in the world and so few available time to go for it!!
Nest year's success criterion will be making bold steps toward financial independence... Work in progress, so pls. bear with me for a while longer. You might be benefited from our plan ;)

Quest to visit a friend...

I believe traveling is one of those pleasures you need to enjoy while you can... now take a look to what I have to do in November to visit my best friend in Seattle after a working week in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Image is really low-quality, but bear with me... the blue line is within the States, showing the roads I would need to drive if I would like to make this a road trip... of 7500 miles!)


As the master Galan would say... FLIPANTE!