Web pages are just like flat piece of papers. But, we can make them alive and more interactive by adding some multimedia items like images, videos, music, reference links, Google maps etc. And this is what actually most of the popular news portals do. But, finding and adding relevant multimedia items to your web pages may consume a good amount of time, until you have a handy tool to do that. So, here comes the Apture tool into the scene.

Apture is an interesting and powerful tool, that gives webmasters or bloggers the power to find and incorporate relevant multimedia items directly into their web pages. You need to add only one line of code to your website or blog and the whole world is at your fingertips! With Apture, you can enhance your web pages with relevant reference articles, images, videos, maps, audios and documents. This will not only help in engaging your readers, but will also give a professional look to your site.

To start using Apture, you need to sign up for a free account. It is a simple process and will take hardly one minute. They will provide you with a code for your website or blog. For WordPress, they have a simple plugin, that you will need to install and activate on your blog. Add your code and you are ready to give life to your web pages.

Apture allows you to add a wide variety of multimedia links to your site. Just select a word or phrase to add a link and this amazing tool will automatically search and list probable relevant reference article, videos, images, maps etc. Preview the media and click to add it to your web page. Simple! No extra codes are required to be added to your content. You will get full freedom in searching, editing and linking. With their media hub, you can access multimedia from a wide range of sources all in one window. The embedded items appears as links on your pages. Every link opens the content in an interactive pop up windows, that can be repositioned anywhere on the page, or enlarged to full screen. So, your readers will get all the required information about a topic, without leaving your site.

Apture also tracks all the contents to which you have previously linked, and also suggests contents based on what other members of the Apture community have been linking. It works with almost all popular publishing platforms like Blogger, MovableTypes, WordPress, and installs with just one click for Blogger and Typepad.

Right now, I am using Apture on one of my sites. It really helps in adding value to your contents. Now, my readers are spending more time on my site. This is only because of this interesting multimedia linking tool. Why don’t you give Apture a try?

Today a new search engine launches. It is called Cuil (pronounced COOL). Cuil is an old Irish word that stands for knowledge. Aimed at creating the biggest web index in the world, Cuil goes beyond the conventional search engine and provides organized and relevant results based on Web page content analysis. Cuil has already indexed more than 120 billion web pages, which is three times more than any other search engines. So, Cuil claims to be the “Biggest Internet Search Engine”.

Cuil’s technology was developed by a team with extensive history in search. Cuil is located in Menlo Park, California and is led by husband-and-wife team Tom Costello and Anna Patterson. Mr. Costello researched and developed search engines at Stanford University and IBM; Ms. Patterson is best known for her work at Google, where she was the architect of the company’s large search index and led a Web page ranking team. They refused to accept the limitations of current search technology and dedicated themselves to building a more comprehensive search engine. Together with Russell Power, Anna’s former colleague from Google, they founded Cuil to give users the opportunity to explore the Internet more fully and discover its true potential.

What makes Cuil different from Google? Instead of using inbound links as a factor for ranking, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance of a search query. Cuil’s goals are to index the whole Web, to analyze deeply its pages and to organize results in a rich and helpful way that allows you to explore fully the subject of your search.

Cuil searches the Web for pages with your keywords and then analyze the rest of the text on those pages to sort out different meanings of the same keyword in different contexts. Then, all those context are separated into tabs and displayed on your search result pages. The simple aim of Cuil is to give you a wider range of more detailed search results and the opportunity to explore more fully the different ideas behind your search query.

The rich interface and search results on Cuil looks really good. The search results are displayed in columns and you can switch between using two and three columns by clicking on the link at the bottom of the search results page. Text in columns is definitely a new approach for a search engine and it will make the search results easier to read. Other features of Cuil includes Roll-over definitions, safe search and typing suggestion etc.

I really loved their new style of displaying search results and now I am going to test it for a few days. In my view, Cuil is going to stay in the search engine market. It has already got some good fundings from a few companies and we can see some more features in coming days. In the mean time, why don’t you give Cuil a try? Dare to think beyond Google!

Have multiple Twitter accounts? Looking for a simple tool to easily manage all your accounts? Then, you should give EasyTweets a try! EasyTweets is basically a set of tools that will help you in microblogging by enabling you to post to and switch between multiple Twitter accounts. And the good thing is that it is web-based. So, no need to download and install any desktop clients!

The sign up process is very simple and takes just a few seconds. After sign up, you can add all your Twitter accounts to your dashboard and view status of all of your accounts at a glance. You can choose and switch between accounts by using the pull-down menu at the top of your dashboard. You can write a new tweet from the “Write’ tab of your account. EasyTweets allows you to schedule your tweets for future a time. This is a cool feature and will help you in maintaining regular Twitter updates, even when you are busy!

EasyTwitter also offers an automatic URL shortening feature with the help of http://is.gd. As you know, Twitter allows maximum 140 characters per tweet, so this feature will enable you to write longer tweets. Even you can add RSS feeds to your accounts, and have them auto posted to your Twitter account. Other features of EasyTweets includes the ability to track replies, re-schedule the future tweets and track new followers even when Twitter is down.

With EasyTweets, you can easily manage your multiple Twitter accounts. The ability to schedule tweets and automatic URL shortening definitely help you in effectively using the power of Twitter. And the good thing is that it is a free service. Try it today.

After more than six months of testing, Google has finally opened it’s Knol platform to public, on Wednesday. What is Knol? Knol is a basically an information site, where people can write authoritative articles about specific topics. An article about a specific topic will be called a ‘knol’. The goal of Knol is to provide the best information about all kind of topics, in one single place. They will do so by encouraging people to write informative articles or knols about the topics they are familiar with. And to maintain the good quality, Knol will also accept ratings, comments and reviews on knols, from the public.

Every knol will have an author or a group of authors and they can take credit for their writing, provide credentials, and elicit reviews and comments. As an author you can write on anything and no one else can edit your knol, unless you permit it. This makes Knol different from Wikipedia, which is at present the most popular source of collective information.

According to Google Blog:

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

Knol is a platform for sharing information. So, it offers different tools to facilitate interaction between readers and authors. As a reader you can rate, comment and review the existing knols. And as an author, you can write knols and choose to close you knol so that no one else can edit it, make it open to others to edit or keep the default “moderated collaboration” mode. The “moderated collaboration” allows any reader to make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these edits become visible to the public. It is a good point and will help authors in improving the quality of their contents.

Knols may contain text and photos, that comply with the officla content policy. In a near future, other media content are also expected to be added to the platform. To make knols more interesting, Google has recently partnered with The New Yorker magazine to allow any author to add one cartoon per knol from the magazine’s cartoon repository.

At the discretion of the author, a knol may include Google AdSense ads. If an author chooses to include ads on his/her knols, Google will offer the author with a revenue share from the profits of those ad placements. So, good authors can definitely expect to earn some money from their knols.

The idea of “authoritative article” is good and will help lots of people in finding the right information. But, the problem is that, bad people will still try to corrupt the idea by providing junk articles. So, I have some doubts about the quality of information. Well, the good thing is that you can earn money from Knol by writing some quality articles.

Recently I came across a cool service called Qik, which is a live mobile video streaming service. What does it means? It means that you can use it to stream videos directly from your phone to the Web. With the help of Qik, you can go for live video streaming anytime, anywhere. You can also use it to record and share your special moments via your phone. And the good thing is that it is a free service.

To start using Qik, you will need a compatible phone with a data plan or internet access. They supports a number of Nokia phones and some other phones running Windows Mobile. You can see the complete list of supported phone models on the sign up page. If your phone is compatible and you have a good data plan, just enter your phone number and follow the link sent to your number. That’s it! You are live and ready to start streaming. As video streaming consumes huge amount of bandwidth, it is advised to use a unlimited data plan on your phone.

Your streams via Qik will be automatically recorded and made available on your Qik profile page. Later, you can manage all your streams from your profile page. You can also subscribe to Qiks from your favorite RSS reader on your phone or the Nokia Podcasting application on your Nokia smartphone. With Qik, you can go live on your profiles at Facebook, Orkut or MySpace.

On July 21, 2008, Qik entered into public beta with addition of some new features. It means that anyone can sign up and use their service. So, if you love to shoot video using your phone, then Qik is the right tool for streaming and sharing your videos on the Web. Try it today. It is free and cool!

TinyMassive is a comparison shopping site that pays publishers for displaying contextual Pay-Per-Click shopping widgets on their websites or blogs. Their widgets are visually appealing and lists products from different merchants, that are relevant to your content or specified keywords. TinyMassive tracks product trends across the web and displays most popular products on their widgets. And the good thing is that their shopping widgets are compatible with all other ad networks.

TinyMassive was founded in July, 2007. The company is based in Bellingham, WA and Vancouver, BC. The product listings are displayed on their widgets on a cost per click (CPC) basis and they share up to 70% of their revenue with their publishers. So, your earnings will depend on your content, traffic and click through revenue generated on your widgets.

Their widgets work with popular blogging platforms such as TypePad, Blogger and WordPress. Creating and installing a TinyMassive shopping widget is very simple and it takes only a few minutes. They offers widgets of different standard sizes. You will get three options to customize the products displayed on your widget. You can choose to display products relevant to your blog or site content, most popular products from their network or specific products by providing tags.

They also have a referral program. They will pay you 10% of the earnings of publishers referred by you to the network. Well, you will earn the commissions only for the first 12 months of referral. They pays publisher commissions on a monthly basis via Paypal. You will receive your payments 45 days after the end of the month in which your current balance reaches $10.

In my view, TinyMassive shopping widgets will perform best on established product related sites. So, if you have a blog or website related to products, gadgets or shopping, then their widget may be a perfect option for you. Well, the point is conversion. It is too early for me to give a final decision, as I am still testing it. What about you? If you are already using TinyMassive, feel free to give your opinion about it’s performance. And if you are not yet a member, you should join TinyMassive today!

Today, developers at WordPress has introduced themes to their official site and they call it “Theme Directory”. This official WordPress Theme Directory will host and showcase beautiful GPL themes and it can be accessed from the “/extend/themes/” section of WordPress.org. This is a good news both for bloggers and theme authors. Now, bloggers can expect to find some cool themes at a single, reliable place. On the other hand, theme authors will be able to upload and host their themes on this directory. WordPress will also provide detailed information about downloads, user ratings and feedbacks for each theme.

All themes are reviewed before inclusion in the theme directory and there are some specific requirements, that must be fulfilled in order to get your WordPress theme included. Some of those requirements are:

• A single zip file, with all of the files themes file included.
• There must be a style.css file containing Name, Tags, Version and Image align classes.
• The screenshot file name must be screenshot.png, and be a real screenshot of the theme, not a splash screen.
• Licensing must be GPL compatible.
• No hidden, paid or sponsored links in the theme. Links back to the author’s site are fine.
• The theme must be your own original work.

Like the Plugins section, the new Themes section on WordPress.org will categorize themes according to tags. You will be able to test drive every theme and even you can give ratings and feedbacks. Right now, they only have three themes. But, I am sure that soon we will be able to see some really beautiful themes on the WordPress Theme Directory.