web2.0 « Outer Thoughts

On WordChamp’s embedded reader/translator

By arafalov, on May 28th, 2007%

It is really good to see more and more companies offering services that can be embedded in one’s own webpage. YouTube is probably the most known example, but the concept is applicable to many other types of services. WordChamp’s new Reader API is a great example of this. Between their Web reader, their Firefox plugin . . . → Read More: On WordChamp’s embedded reader/translator

Spock announces an Entity Resolution competition

By arafalov, on April 15th, 2007%

Netflix prize must be doing well, as there are now other companies willing to tap into web’s researchers with deep knowledge of computational techniques.

The latest company is Spock, a company so new that you have to read 3rd party sites to figure out exactly what they do. Even to use it, one has to signup for . . . → Read More: Spock announces an Entity Resolution competition

Gmail + VOIP = great reference system in the Net cloud

By arafalov, on March 10th, 2007%

My primary phone number is provided by Lingo – a Voice over internet provider. One of the features it has is server based voicemail with the message automatically forwarded to my email. A feature like this would (AFAIK) be very expensive from a traditional provider, but usually comes for free from most VOIP-based providers. Some providers . . . → Read More: Gmail + VOIP = great reference system in the Net cloud

Calling for support? Calling for trouble! The business idea.

By arafalov, on January 7th, 2007%

Account cancelation is a great pain in the rear. A PCWorld article (via BoingBoing) tests multiple services and discoveres that most of them go to great troubles to keep people subscribed, willingly or not.
Something has to be done about it. I propose a new business that will cater specifically to the people calling support numbers (e.g. . . . → Read More: Calling for support? Calling for trouble! The business idea.

Free music and more

By arafalov, on November 10th, 2006%

Amie St is a very interesting business idea with a good execution. They are music discovery and store with a twist – songs start free and the price goes up based on how popular they get. To encourage ratings and downloads, they even pay to the users who discovered good songs early and recommended them to . . . → Read More: Free music and more

FreshNotes: Web 2.0 company using computational linguistics

By arafalov, on July 14th, 2006%

FreshNotes (currently in alpha) uses basic named entity extraction and maybe information extraction to produce a website that allows to search and navigate relationships between people and/or topics. The interface, but of course it is all pre-baked at the moment.

From the CL point of view, I can see that there is very little smarts in the . . . → Read More: FreshNotes: Web 2.0 company using computational linguistics

Outer Thoughts