2005 September 14

I'm enjoying my new PSP games (one of which being the new Burnout Legends, recommended wholeheartedly by Andru Edwards). I sent my 1GB Sandisk memory stick in for replacement last week, so I'm making due with the default 32MB one for now. Can't cram too many cool items on there… like these sweet little PSP wallpapers:

Read more on Killer PSP Wallpapers…

http://www.google.com/blogsearch – and I'm not the only one who's excited about this new development…

• My Google Blogsearch Predictions
• New Blog Search Engine from Google
• REVIEW- Google Blog Search
• The Beginning of the End for Technorati-

Read more on Google Does Blog Search!…

My take on the new Microsoft Office? They've made steady improvements to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – although I don't believe folks are going to rush out and upgrade as soon as possible (especially with an unrealistic price point). There are plenty of free Office-like application alternatives out there, including OpenOffice and ThinkFree Office Online. You can get away with using any one of them to create, edit, or view these basic formats. How often do you use your word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation programs? 90% of the time, you use 10% of their features. The only Microsoft Office app that I use constantly and consistently is Outlook, for the very reason that there's no other usable PIM on the Windows platform. I was hoping that the next version of Outlook would win me over from Outlook 2000, but I fear my hopes were dashed. I really don't like the new Ribbon-driven interface, and there's no falling back to “classic mode” (according to them). I'll reserve final judgement for the final Office code release, naturally. The Outlook team could only win me over by improving the client's non-Exchange performance, UI snappiness, and general layout esthetics. I'm not holding my breath.

Read more on Microsoft Office 12: Possibly Better, Possibly Worse…

Google Adsense has been the solution for independent Web publishers looking for a way to make a living (and sometimes more). Other alternatives require more intervention from an already time-strapped entrepreneur or simply don’t deliver comparable payouts. Yahoo is working to change the status quo, recently rolling out their Yahoo Publisher Network, a portal competing directly with Adsense by offering detailed reporting features, additional services and payouts they hope will rival expectations set by Adsense. Chris talks with Will Johnson of YPN about what the service offers for publishers of all sizes and how they plan to compete with the popular incumbent.

Read more on Yahoo Publisher Network…