Google Fast Flip & Voice Command Search

I continue my love affair with Google. They have a new application called "Fast flip." I was able to flip through a bunch of interesting web articles without having to click into the actual page. I skimmed the "12 Suprising Facts about Women" from Esquire, the "Ten Greatest Downloads" from PC World, and why Louis Farrakhan thinks the Chilean earthquake is a prelude to what will happen next in America (courtesy of the Chicago Trib). It took me less time to flip through those articles than it did to write that last line describing them. Pretty cool. Also, any one of those stories is pretty teasable.

http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

Also, for those of who have an iPhone... Google now allows you to search by voice command. It. Is. Awesome. Apparently this came out a while ago. What rock have I been living under? I wish I would have found it sooner.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10100719-2.html

Interesting New Website: Online Only Magazine

LonnyMag, the new online style magazine has nothing to do with news, but I keep thinking about it in terms of how it could be used for news websites, if at all. It's basically an online magazine where if you see something you like, you can click on it and instantly get routed to the item-- essentially hyperlinks connected to pictures of the item. Wanna buy that chair? Click on the picture and purchase.

Shades of CueCat (www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.5036/content.content_view.htm)
a few years back (any other former Belo employees remember this?)... but... in this case, I think it works. Of course, it helps if you're into decorating and fashion...

What could you do with this on a news website? Maybe a slideshow of top 10 holiday toys with links? It's interesting to mull over the possibilities... (www.lonnymag.com)

Speaking of hyperlinks, I have yet to figure out how to get them working here. So my apologies to all of you who hate to cut and paste.

Email: It's Personal

I touched on this in a previous blog post but it's worth a whole one. If you use your work email address for personal emails, consider this: Any email you send on your work address is company property.

I am a conspiracy theorist who suspects there is some superuser in each company holed up in an office somewhere reading everyone's emails. Even if that's not the case, remember Enron? Like a gazillion employee emails were posted online when the company imploded. For an article on it... http://tinyurl.com/bs5oyd

Twitter and Skype

I know you are tired of hearing me preach Twitter.com and Skype.com but the Buffalo plane crash provides a good example of how you can use both to enhance your coverage.

Twitter is micro-blogging-- basically like the status bar on Facebook. You enter a sentence and it's posted. You also "follow" other Twitter users to see what they are saying. The more people you follow, the better depth and breadth you get. Sometimes you get a sense of what people are talking about before it hits anybody's radar screen.

For spot news coverage, use Twitter's search function... http://tinyurl.com/acpp6u

On big stories, like the Buffalo plane crash, people may use hashtags (#) to make it easier to search for a certain story. The hashtags I've seen used for the crash are #buffalo, #3407, and #clarenceplanecrash. You can find out what hashtags people are using at www.hashtags.org

You won't use things directly for air from Twitter.com, but it can give you a sense whether you're missing something. For example, people started posting home video of the crash, the tower recordings, and a Google pic of the house prior to the crash. Did you know about these? How quickly? What if that plane crash were in your backyard and you were going wall to wall?

You can also use Twitter to search for users in a given area and follow their "tweets" or updates. I use this a lot during storm coverage. People are really good about reporting what's happening in their area. Again, it's not something you'd put directly on air necessarily but it can give you a better sense of what's happening.

Skype is the videophone over the internet service that's free between users. You can also search Skype for users in a given area. For the Buffalo crash, you could call users in Buffalo. Maybe they're no where near the crash, but who knows? You might get lucky. Same goes for storm coverage. If you're wondering if it's hailing in Arlington, Texas, you can call a Skype user in Arlington and check. Instead of a phoner, you'd have a live picture of a person. Maybe they could even take their laptop out to the back deck and show you the golf-ball sized hail.

More on Skype

I tried out Skype for work. We were doing liveshots at a gas station so I used my laptop (with a wireless card) to show traffic. They popped it up in a double box for a bit during our liveshot. Again- it was super easy. In my humble opinion- easier to use than Livecast, another thing we've played with. Today we are headed to Lone Grove for tornado coverage. I will try to use it again there.

Something to think about in terms of your coverage- Skype, I believe has a search function for place. So if you are doing wall to wall coverage on a tornado in Lone Grove, you could search for users nearby and try to give them a call.