Google - Halloween

Happy Googl-oween everyone :)

Web - BAT (Bionic Assessment Test)

A new TV series entitled "Bionic woman" debuted on NBC a couple of weeks back and the network launched an *addictive* microsite to promote it. The idea is simple, but good enough to get the users hooked on it for a while; Take 5 tests, challenge your audio visual skills and assess how much of a bionic person you are!

The mini-games are sticky, and not as easy as they may look like.
I ended up being 65% bionic - I tried many times to reach 75% to unlock the hidden content, but I failed miserably ;)

Take the BAT here.

Web

Random - Magic number #7

I realized that I haven't been giving the "magic numbers" the respect they deserve :/, and I apologize for it - But I do have a good excuse; RL seems to be taking over my virtual life lately.

So Thank you visitor #700 for taking the time to read my WeeWorld post (in less than a minute) :)

*giggles*

Web 2.0 - Digg labs screensavers

Digg labs are back with a "new" screensaver that - like the previous ones - gives you a dynamic/real time visualization of the stories being submitted to Digg.

"Digg Arc displays stories, topics, and containers wrapped around a sphere. Arc trails users as they digg stories across topics. Stories with more diggs make thicker arcs."

Arc definitely has the most colorful interface, but Bigspy, Stack and Swarm are also nice to have :)

Have a look and download them here.

Note: it reminded me of that Twingly screensaver that was out a while back depicting the live state of the blogosphere - and that is unfortunately still not available for macs :(

Digg . Web 2.0

Web 2.0 - Twitter user interface

Twitter has amended its interface a couple of weeks back.

The search is finally functional, but there are still a couple of UI issues (simple but essential in my eyes) that haven't been sorted out (related to the "direct messages" functionality specifically).

I find it weird that in both the Sent messages and Inbox sections, there is no option to select all the messages (or select a few) to delete them at once. You have to do it one by one (by clicking on the bin icon, which prompts the same message every time, double checking that you really want to delete the message) - It becomes very annoying if you have more than 10 messages to delete.

A "select all" button, and individual tick boxes for the selection of multiple messages would make the process much easier and faster.

What surprises me also is that the "direct messages" link (and the number) doesn't turn bold if there is a new message in the user's inbox to attract his attention. You do get an email notification, but what if the user didn't check his email and didn't keep track of the number of messages he initially had in his inbox?!

These are basic details that might not seem important compared to all the back-end work, but I am a strong believer in the fact that good/intuitive user interface is necessary for a perfect experience :) - Fellow Twitterers, what do you think?

Follow me on Twitter here.

Web 2.0 . Twitter

SL - Encounters & more

Here are the latest SL news:

Met a couple of funky characters (some heavy duty pre-Halloween action and a pregnant avi in Berkman), and jumped from the third floor of the Eiffel tower in Paris 1900 (with a parachute on, of course).

Ah! I almost forgot... A random resident did some trick (I obviously have no clue how/what), but I kept walking for a while with "sweety" and "princess" labels on top of my head :) - really funny experience.

Second life

Buzz - Google acts on video copyrights

Google developed a new technology that allows media companies to automatically bar copyrighted clips from appearing on its video-sharing sites.

The system allows for the automated comparison of video files, furnished by the copyright holders, to those uploaded to YouTube.

Read the full article here.

Mobile - Time Cameraphone photographer of the year

The Times is on a mission to find the Cameraphone Photographer of the Year - brought to you by Sony Ericsson and Times Online.

"The competition sets a new theme each week and readers are now invited to send in their images for the fifth assignment, entitled “People”.

User generated content meets mobile technologies competitions are quite popular, but what makes this one so special is the fact that it's giving individuals the possibility to be "famous", and compete with professional journalists on every story.

Prizes include a multi-city worldwide holiday, a European city break, cameraphones and printers.

Unleash your photo-reporting creativity here.