Loki is a location based search tool, which helps in finding where you are in a new place and deliver the information like local news, local businesses, weather forecasts etc. To use loki you need to install their toolbar and hit the button to find your location and then you can search for local information.

Loki functionality is based on Skyhook Wireless WiFi Positioning System (WPS) which uses WiFi access points to triangulate a user’s location.

With WPS operating to determine and publish the user’s latitude/longitude, street, address, zip code, city, state or general geographic area, the Loki users can efficiently and effectively use that location to quickly find the most and accurate information.

Loki Works on IE and Firefox, download the toolbar here

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Apple released a patch for the flaw in Quick Time used to hack a Mac book at a security conference. The vulnerability lies in Quick Time Java and can be triggered to hack the computer when the computer user visits a malicious website.

Apple Patch for QuickTime 7.1.6

An implementation issue exists in QuickTime for Java, which may allow reading or writing out of the bounds of the allocated heap. By enticing a user to visit a web page containing a maliciously-crafted Java applet, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional bounds checking when creating QTPointerRef objects. Credit to Dino Dai Zovi working with TippingPoint and the Zero Day Initiative for reporting this issue.

This will effect both windows and mac running quick time with a java enabled browser.

Google renamed personalized home page google/ig to iGoogle. With iGoogle it is now possible to make your own gadgets. Gadgets look simple and very easy to create, you dont have to be a programmer to make gadgets.

Once you create the gadget it will be added to your home page, you can invite your friends to see the gadgets. You have the option to inlude your gadgets in the directory for public use, if you dont want to include them in the directory they will not appear public.

Gadget Categories

1. Photo album: share up to 7 photos with friends and family. Photos can be rotated once a day or on refresh
2. GoogleGram: Send Flowers or Candies with personal message to someone special’s home page. Up to 7 messages can be added, message changes every day.
3. Daily Me : Share what you are doing today with loved ones
4. Freeform: Display your creativity with this all-purpose gadget that lets you meld text and image in any way.
5. YouTube Channel - Create a video channel for your friends, up to 10 videos can be added.
6. Personal list Use it as to do list, music list or whatever
7. Countdown : Countdown for an event

Links: Google Blog

Looks like google checkout search result on Google hijacked by hibidder.com. Search for Google Checkout on Google, the first result you will see is “use google checkout on hibidder com free”. Is this mean google chekout result is hijacked by hibidder.com. But when you click the link it goes to original google checkout page. found here

Update: This was fixed now and shows Google Ckeckout link

Satisfy maps your site visitors using Google Maps API. It shows the location of the visitors on Google Map in real time. For tracking your site visitos provide your email address, URL and choose a name for your site ex: satisfy.net/teknobites. They will send you a code snippet, include that in your template and start mapping your visitors.
Source: Digg

Microsoft announced streaming support for Silverlight at Mix07 conference, the service allows web develeopers to host and stream up to 4Gb of videos for free. The videos can be streamed at 700kbps. Silverlight streaming works in conjunction with Silverlight browser plugin released earlier. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs).

While the product is in pre-release, storage and delivery is free up to 4 GB, with outbound streaming up to DVD quality (700 Kbps). As we move out of Beta, developers/designers will have continued use of the service with up to 1 million minutes of free video streaming at 700 Kpbs per site per month. Unlimited streaming will also be available for free with advertising, or with payment of a nominal fee for the service for use without advertising.

Microsoft also announced the availability of Silverlight beta for download and support for .NET platforam, supprot for dynamic languages like Python, Ruby.

In addition to making the beta of Silverlight available for download, Microsoft announced unprecedented support for dynamic languages including Python and Ruby.

More on Silverlight
Microsoft Press Release on these announcements

Yahoo announced today that it agreed to acquire Right Media Inc., which runs an advertising marketplace. Yahoo invested 20% in Right Media in 2006 and now Yahoo will acquire the remaining stake for $680 billions.

Right Media runs an advertising market place where advertisers and publishers buy and sell ads through auctions in real time.

By acquiring Right Media yahoo may be trying to counter Google. Google recently acquired Double Click for $3.1billion

“The acquisition of Right Media will further Yahoo!’s goal to create the industry’s most open, accessible and vibrant advertising marketplace, which will help democratize the buying and selling of digitally enabled advertising,” said Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!.

Nofollow is a link attrubute adopted by search engines like Google and Yahoo to fight comment and link spam. This nofollow link attribute is automatically added when you post a comment in any wordpress or blogger.com blogs. Recently wikipedia also introduced this nofollow link attribute to fight link spam.

Search Engine Journal came up with a post on how Google, Yahoo and others treat this nofollow link attribute. They have some interesting points about nofollow link attribute. Google wont follow that link and it wont give any attribution to the link. Yahoo will follow the link but it wont give any attribution to the link. In contrast Ask.com will follow the link and give attribution to that link because it has not yet supported the nofollow tag officially.

The nofollow links may not hold any value from Google, but from Yahoo and Ask.com thay do.