The Next Web

John McCain & Barack Obama on Technology

Written on November 3, 2008 – 5:04 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

This blog has a focus on Europe and the rest of the world and generally not on the US. But the outcome of the US Elections affect us all so here is just ONE post to give you a little insight into tomorrows event. We have two videos showing the presidential candidates giving their vision on the state of Technology in the US and a simple map so you know what is happening tomorrow as the results come in.

John McCain on Technology:

Barack Obama on Technology:

How to bluff your way into the elections:

Also make sure you visit http://thisfuckingelection.com/ at least once. It shows just one keyword list with all the terms, sentences and accusations used in these elections. Read them for 2 minutes and you will be able to bluff your way into any conversation about the elections.

Want to keep up-to-date via SMS and Twitter? Check out Slandr which collects all Tweets about the Elections on their special Election Section.

You might not be a US citizen, or maybe you are, but I’m interested either way. What will you or would you vote? Let us know and tell us why in the comments…

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Oh, and with this movie they almost got ME to vote, and I’m Dutch!

I hope you like that post!

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barack obama, elections, john mccain, USA

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Hitler a hot political topic these elections, says Twitter

Written on October 27, 2008 – 1:03 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The Twitter Election header is awkward enough if you’re European, but with the mentions of Hitler as a hot topic, the users of the microblogging service are really pushing it.

A simple search on Twitter Search proves that there’s some kind of rumor going on about Palin supporters comparing Obama with Hitler. In less than an hour, this nonsense is a hot topic. What about health care people?

[Hat tip to Woutr]

barack obama, hitler, sarah palin, twitter

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Ask.com first giant to copy alt search engines

Written on October 6, 2008 – 11:59 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

At the San Francisco Altsearchengines.com meeting last April, the general opinion was that without those alternative engines, there would be little innovation in search. No new frontiers would be explored. Those search start-ups come with new algorithms, smart crowd source approaches, and different UI’s. But in the end, aren’t these engines just inspiration for the big guys who can copy the improved ways of searching withing a few months?

If you look at the new Ask.com, you’d say this is true. Although some say it looks like Mahalo, you can also state the engine has adopted several typical alt search engines features like:

• Clustering of results: if you search for Obama, you’ll get a short description, picture, and links to the Official Site, films, music, Wikipedia, and the senatorial site.
• Related Searches. In the case of Obama his running mate, wife, and main rival.
• A collection of thumbnails with Obama’s face

My guess is that this will mark the beginning of a copy trend. Every successful alt search engine will see its main USP being adopted by the major search engines.

altsearchengines, ask.com, barack obama, search

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