HOW DO I GET THE BEST OUT OF MY GOOGLE SEARCHES?

For many of us, any sort of internet search starts and ends with Google. However, there's one small problem - sometimes, what you really need may be on the 2,64,568th page. Smarter Google users will point out that you can use the minus/plus sign, inverted commas (double quotes) or the star (*) symbol to search better. But sometimes, search alternatives can give you better results with less work.

For instance, try http://search.io which offers a simple, Google-like search page - except that you can choose from various search engines for different types of files from a dropdown menu.

You can use Imagery (http://elzr.com/imagery) to search for images instead of Google Images.

When you don't know exactly what you're searching for, use Quintura (www.quintura.com) - it will throw up results with a visual tag cloud, which you can use to refine or alter your search.

Moosearch (http://moosearch.com) lets you choose between various different categories before entering a search term.

The PDF Search Engine (www.pdf-search-engine.com) lets you search for books and magazines

while Yoozila (www.yoozila.com) will segregate your results according to type.

A handy tip: if you find any of these search tools helpful, just press Ctrl + D on your keyboard to add a bookmark for later use.

Source: www.economictimes.com

HITESH RAJ BHAGAT is ET’s resident geek

Express, Share thoughts with picture using JING.

Recently I came across very nice tool the "JING" by techsmith, to express data picturesquely. JING is a screen capture tool to snap the screen or record the session by capturing in the form of Short Video Clip and simultaneously publish it to web url to be able communicate and elaborate on what you want to convey.

When you publish the captured data, it actually creates a folder for your account and uploads the Image or Video Clip in (www.screencast.com) a folder and gives you the url, which you just need to send to your partner during chat or in email, which otherwise you would have to attach in your email as attachment.

Please Click here for the screen-shot of output of the google transliteration.

or

Click here to view the Video of How the Google Transliteration works as captured using Jing.

Google Launches Transliteration Services.

Google has also launched Transliteration for Indian
languages.

Google Transliteration is a Major Milestone in easing the communication in the vernacular language. It will help bridging the gap between rural and urban people. It will also help save the languages from dyeing.
It is very simple to use. It translates as you type!

How it works?

Just Click on the Language below to see the live transliteration as you type the words.

Gujarati Transliteration.

Hindi Transliteration.

Visit http://www.google.com/transliterate/ for transliteration in other languages.

Earth Hour 2010 has Arrived - Earth Hour Facts

Capture the moment - Earth Hour has arrived!

8:30pm Saturday 27th March, 2010.

It's now a just hours away from Earth Hour and we want to help you prepare for the big day with a quick how-to guide to sharing your photos, videos, blog posts and tweets with us and the rest of the globe on the night.

At 8.30pm on 27 March, lights will go out for one hour all over the world and we’d love you to help capture the moment in your area. We’re going to be adding your photos and videos to the homepage of earthhour.org on the night as it happens around the world, so upload your images and videos as soon as you can.

Upload your photos: http://flickr.com/groups/eh2010

Upload your videos: http://www.youtube.com/group/earthhourglobal

Tweets and blog posts: use the tag '#earthhour' to help us find your post

to know more go to http://www.earthhour.org

Facts:

====

Earth Hour 2009 was from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time, March 28, 2009. 88 countries and 4,088 cities participated in Earth Hour 2009, ten times more cities than Earth Hour 2008 had (2008 saw 400 cities participate). One billion votes was the stated aim for Earth Hour 2009, in the context of the pivotal 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Among the participants in 2009 was, for the first time, the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The U.N. conservatively estimates that its participation will save $102 in energy.

Reports show that the United States topped the Earth Hour participation with an estimated 80,000,000 people, 318 cities and 8 states participating. The Philippines saw participation from 647 cities and towns or over 15 million Filipinos were estimated to have joined in the hour-long lights-off at 8:30 - 9:30 PM local time. This was followed by Greece with 484 cities and towns participating, and Australia with 309.

The Canadian province of Ontario, excluding the city of Toronto, saw a decrease of 6% of electricity while Toronto saw a decrease of 15.1% (nearly doubled from 8.7% the previous year) as many businesses darkened, including the landmark CN Tower.

Swedish electricity operator Svenska Kraftnät recorded 2.1% decrease in power consumption from its projected figure between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. The following hour, the corresponding number was 5%. This equals the consumption of approximately half a million households out of the total 4.5 million households in Sweden.

According to Vietnam Electricity Company, Vietnam electricity demand fell 140,000 kWh during Earth Hour.

The Philippines was able to save 611 MWh of electricity during the time period, and is said to be equivalent to shutting down a dozen coal-fired power plants for an hour.

to know more go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour

ICICI Bank Token Queue Sysytem

ICICI Bank introduced one of the finest system of Token Queue system. It is a welcome step by bank to provide quality services to the customer. The purpose of the system is to bring efficiency and let customer know when he will be attended particularly during the rush time. Also, I have noticed at some branches of ICICI bank that you don't need to get the token for depositing the cheque(s), but, opposed to that some branches just would not accept the cheque deposit unless customer is coming in queue. Even though officers are free having no customer to attend or just for the sake of following the blind rule of thumb as seen in government offices. This is the finest example of misuse of the system.

While other nationalized banks are ready to give acknowledgement and having special counter for accepting cheques, why does ICICI bank insist on depositing cheque through ATM and gives cold response for acknowledgement. Cheque Deposit at ATM should be seen as a facility to the customer but can not be forced on to customers to operate that way only. I think if bank really wants to bring in the quality service to customer then they need to give proper directives to their branches or it will become lethargic system.

ICICI Bank

One of the lousiest branch, i have ever seen. They insist cash to be deposited in envelope only. In the name of customer service they avoid giving acknowledgement and work at their leisure. No matter what customer says. It is also a sheer waste of stationery. When somebody is coming ready with cash deposit slip (as normal practice at all the banks) and ready to wait for acknowledgement, why should bank at first insist on cash deposit in envelope. The worst part is today 26th March, 2010, I deposited cash at 09:45am and was not given credit till 15:05pm. I personally had to go to the bank and approach Manager Mr. Satpal singhji to bring the issue to his notice.

I think in this case, it is the policy at ICICI Bank, which needs to give proper directive to the branches, that Cheque Deposit in Envelope should be an option to the customer and not the compulsion imposed by bank.