MATEOSQUARED’S iSEARCH

Lloyd Levine a lawmaker in California, is trying to pass new legislation that would ban people from using the incandescent light bulb. It is about time people realize that a 125 year old technology is not as efficient as it could or should be. I do not agree with the government making a law stating what light bulbs we can and cannot use, but I do agree that it is a good idea to replace the old-fashioned bulbs with the newer Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs. I am just as guilty as the next guy when using incandescent bulbs, but my wife and i have started to replace bulbs with the new CFLs as needed. They give off the same if not better light, produce less heat, and gives everyone the opportunity to help out.
I think the upfront costs may keep people away, but if you look at the lifetime value of the bulb, and financial and environmental savings it is worth the added cost.

My brother has been doing it for years, so he is probably reading this with a I told you so smile on his face…

• Here is another article from MSNBC.
• EnergyStar provides all kinds of valuable information on CFLs.

 If you are really excited about doing changing your light bulbs, take the EnergyStar Pledge.

I have found another site that allows people to trade books for free. It is called BookMooch, and seems to be very similar to Title Trader and is kind of like BookCrossing. For those of us who do not like to throw books away, but also are running out of space, BookMooch is a great option. It is a community that requires participation, and offers points based on your participation, the visitor then uses the points to acquire new books.

BookMooch also allows people to give books to charities, and I believe you get more points when giving to charities versus individuals. One point they make in their about section is that they give to children’s hospitals, so that the children have books to read when staying at the hospital. Good idea.
Here are some other books sites I have written about.

I have been searching for some time for a good online to-do organizer that does not have too many bells and whistles, and is easy to enter and organize information. TaskToy is the one, it has a basic interface, is intuitive without a bunch of extra stuff that is not necessary and just gets in the way. It was created by Toby Segaran, who needs to win some sort of award for his efforts. I am looking forward to other applications Toby puts out in the future.

For all of you who cannot get enough of your favorite blogs, you can now listen to them on your mp3 player via a semi-human voice provided by Odiogo. I like it, because I never have time to read all of the blogs I am trying to keep up with, so now I can start listening to them on the commute. The only drawback that I have seen so far is that people write to be read, not to be spoken, so the podcasts will sound a little choppy and rigid. Some blogs are choppy and rigid, so it should not be a big deal to some. Ultimately it is one more Web 2.0 product taking us away from the PC, and moving our stuff to another mobile device.

Here is their press release. As you will see it is endorsed by Techie Diva, not sure who that is but they seem to have some pull in the industry.

SFGate.com has come up with an idea to make sure that everyone is heard, even if they leave a voice mail. Letters to the editor are so 2004 compared to turning customer complaints and comments into Podcasts. People in the future may want to count to ten before calling in and harass customer support, unless they want the whole world to hear their irrational rantings.

The podcast. 

They both lost… Who would have thought?

The Delicious Life tried it:

If you do, your adorable 5-cup food processor will bust an Optimus Prime and transform itself from an innocuous Cuisinart into a “does-not-compute” Decepticon, spewing dark, dirty coffee bean shrapnel out of the little “feed tube” on the plastic top that is now a mega-cannon. Your kitchen counter will be nothing but the gruesome aftermath of a frenzied battle between a red-eyed, caffeine-starved kamikaze humanoid and heartless machine, littered with complete and utter coffee bean carnage.

A sad story for coffee lovers everywhere, but something that had be tested. If they didn’t do it, somebody would have and they may not have had the same level of expertise or professionalism as The Delicious Life.

This is not your mother’s recipe site. It really isn’t even a recipe site, it is a food aggregator. Well kind of…
Tastespotting is a site for foodies who like to share what they love, food. Pictures of food, recipes, cools sites about food, anything that is digitized and food related. It is new, and not typical for most aggregators or search engines, but it is a neat concept. They have an editorial group that reviews postings, but it looks like they let about anything go through, as long as it is creative and unique.

Kevin Bacon has put his six degrees phenomenon to good use. He has started SixDegrees.org with non-profit Network For Good which helps organizations and charities raise money online. He has used his six degrees influence to celebrities to promote their charitable causes on his site, and allow those of us who are not celebrities to promote our own causes.

So far Kevin has raised $50,000 for his own cause, and Tyra Banks has raised an amazing $10 dollars. You think she could throw a Benjamin or two to fluff it up a little bit, and make her look like she is serious about her “cause”. So far the site has raised about $70,000 in total.
The actual SixDegrees site is only about one page, if you click on the links you will be taken to the Network For Good Web site to donate, create your own charity request and any other administrative task that you would like to do to get started.

The social side to this is that you can put badges on your site or blog of your favorite celebrity. You could also create your own badge and offer it for others to put on their site. Great way to passively raise money. I guess it is safer than standing on the side of the street with a boot.

They are currently having a celebrity swag auction on eBay for stuff collected at Sundance.

Mark Bent spent 20+ years in Africa serving in the military, as a diplomat and as an energy company employee. During that time he saw a huge need for people to have safe and affordable light at night, and decided to do something about it. He has created the BogoLight which is a solar powered flashlight that can last up to twenty years.

For each light sold, they donate a light to a non-profit charitable organization.

We sell advanced, renewable energy task lights using the Internet to reach millions of consumers in the developed world. For each light sold, we donate a second identical light to a non-profit for free distribution in the developing world.

Working hand in hand with the largest and most respected non-profit and international assistance organizations on the planet, we have built a reliable distribution system to ensure our lights reach the needy. We deliver the donated lights directly to the developing world and also provide funds for the non-profit to distribute the lights.

The only way to buy our lights in the US is through our  – they are not available in brick and mortar establishments or elsewhere on the web.

Wize has emerged as one of the better product review Web sites out there. Much like Google’s PageRank, they have a WizeRank. Unlike Google, this rank is not named after one of the founders. I guess they could have to called it Baker Rank, too bad the founder of the company did not have a last name like Review or Expert. I guess we cannot all have names that reflect our industry.

Back to the WizeRank. It is based on users reviews, expert reviews and “buzz”. I imagine there is much more too it, but it doesn’t really matter if the site provides relevant results. When searching, the rank comes up next to the results with 100 being the highest. Next to the rank, you will see if the experts liked it, if people liked it, and if people are talking about it. Once you click on the product, you will see the reviews of the product and where to buy it. Wize aggregates the reviews from shopping sites, as well as provides buying guides from other sites. Ultimately Wize is a vertical search engine, that allows people to avoid the clutter that comes from normal searches such as on Google. If you are serious about finding products fast, with good reviews and guides, Wize should be one of your destinations.

Other people talking about Wize:

• Venture Wrap
• Comparison Engines
• TechCrunch