From the index of over 10 billion images in Google’s databases, Google has cross-referenced images as often as possible in order to more thoroughly identify what’s in the picture.  For instance, if you post a photo of The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, but do not label it (even with a descriptive file name), Google will likely figure out what it is by comparing it to other photos of the hotel that have been labeled.  This is also true of many other types of images, even down to sub-species of animals.

When photos are displayed on the Google search, they pop up as a box over the top of the original page they’re on and this box has other information about the picture.  It tells you the size, weight (file size), any image information embedded (titles, photographer, usage rights, etc.) and gives you its best-guess if there is no labeling.  You can also use that image as the basis for a new search to find more like it.

You can even specify a color you prefer when searching for an image in the Advanced Search area.  So if you’re looking for Volkswagen Jettas, but only want to look at red ones, you can include that and Google will do its best to only return red VW Jettas.

All in all, there are a lot of cool new things in Google’s new Image Search.  It’s now become on-par with Bing and then one-upped the competition.

Many well known brand name retailers have offered coupons and codes through the site, and it is easy to search for the latest deals and offers before you buy anything online.  They offer a free newsletter by email which contains all the latest and best deals and offers on the site.  This provides you with a way to check the latest deals as well as providing a prompt to visit the website more frequently.

The best way to make the most of the site is to visit it prior to buying anything online.  You can easily find specific retailers to do business with; just look for the latest voucher codes for that store.  Alternatively you can search for a keyword that will bring up a number of retailers – such as jewellery for example.  Checking the latest deals often results in you saving money that you would otherwise have spent.

The site also provides printable vouchers and has a specific section for the vouchers that are about to expire.  You can also go directly to the range of new vouchers and offers that have just been released, giving you the opportunity to see what else is available.

My Voucher Codes is well laid out, easy to explore and very easy to use as well.  Put simply, it could save you pounds on your shopping.

With vouchers becoming increasingly more popular, more and more of these sites appear to continually crop up internationally. We’re more interested in the Social Commerce related voucher sites, so as soon as more emerge (and believe us they will) we’ll report on it straight away.

But Wordpress have just added a new one to the mix as well, which is called reblogging.  This enables you to reblog about a particular post on someone else’s blog that you like.  You have to say you like it first by clicking on the link labelled ‘Like’.  Once you’ve done that you can reblog the post by clicking the relevant link.

The good news is that you can add your own comments to whatever blog post you want to reblog.  This gives you some interaction with the reblogging method, so you will find it easy to share different content with your readers that you have found elsewhere.

In addition to this of course there is the opportunity for other people to do the same with your Wordpress blog.  This is still a very new feature at present, but you can see how it adds a new level of linking to your blogging – both incoming and outgoing.  As more people become aware of the new reblog feature, it should snowball and become more popular.  We have already seen several websites using it and getting the thumbs up from people who like particular posts, so it adds a new dimension to promoting blogs of all kinds.

The Groupon idea works like this:  Every single day there is a new offer on the site.  It could be a discount on tickets of some kind, or it could be a cut price coffee or meal, or any number of other things.  The catch is that there has to be a set minimum number of people requesting the discount (known as the Groupon, instead of a coupon) for it to be valid.

This way the company providing the offer won’t get burned if not enough people are interested.  And if lots of people are interested, they get to enjoy a discount and the company gets to have some new business coming in.

This is the genius idea behind Groupon.  The site originally started in the United States, but there is now a London-based site in the UK as well.  All you have to do is sign up with a valid email address and wait for details of the latest Groupon to hit your inbox each day.  If you and enough other people apply to get it, you’ll receive the coupon.  If not, there is nothing lost.

It is this ‘please all’ kind of edge that Groupon provides which sets it apart from many other similar sites.  With a lot of good press from the likes of TechCrunch, Business Week and many others, Groupon is set to continue growing from strength to strength (and possibly from country to continent to continent).

As you will see when you visit the site, the size of your own picture will depend on how many followers you have on Twitter.  As you hover your cursor over each picture you can see the name of that user as well as how many followers they have.  The user’s name is also clickable and it takes you to their profile on Twitter should you choose to click on it.

The name of the site comes from just about the most popular user of all, who has the most followers according to Don’t Tell Ashton.  If you know anything about Twitter you will know this refers to the actor Ashton Kutcher, who is married to US actress Demi Moore.

The idea is that if Ashton chose to put his name on this piece of innovative 21st century artwork, he would take up the entire page.  Thus the message is Don’t Tell Ashton, so everyone else has a chance to be seen instead.  This is an interesting project which will eventually be turned into a real piece of art.

Howtru will enable users to aggregate their expertise in order to place a “VeracityScore” onto content. Each VeracityScore will be judged according to how many people believe the content to be accurate and how much of an expert each person is on the subject. Users can post the reasons they believe the content to be dubious. These reasons are also then seen as articles by Howtru and can also be rated, thus helping to further ensure that the judgements aren’t biased.

Howtru is currently still developing its system, however users can sign up to be notified and considered for beta-testing when the opportunity arises.

Howtru has the potential to help police even the largest and most powerful media outlets, as well as providing a new way of filtering the massive amounts of information that are available to internet users.

Foursquare already offers a similar service, which gives users the ability to earn points for visiting locations to compete against their friends. Points are earned every time the user ‘checks in’ and earning enough points can eventually lead to discounts or freebies in shops that are visited frequently. Users can also add new locations for others to see, as well as allowing users to add public tips about places, and private ‘to-do’s for the next time they visit.

Gowalla is similar to Foursquare but has also recently developed an app for the iPad which allows users to see a map which show’s their friend’s locations, as well as other popular locations in the area.

While there hasn’t yet been information on what incentives Facebook will offer to encourage people to use this new function, Facebook’s enormous user database will certainly give it an edge over the already established sites, which may make it difficult for them to compete.

It might not seem like much, but some pages have millions of fans, which translates into millions of dollars worth of media exposure. For example Starbucks has around 6.5 million, the equivalent of 23 million in media expenses.
Virtue has used the statistic as a way of highlighting the power of social media as a form of advertising, emphasising that even brands with a lot of fans still need to engage them to get the full benefit of their numbers.

Some have criticised this statistic as being outdated, by focusing on comparing social media with traditional media, when the two might have different intrinsic values, rather than measuring how this form of advertising translates into sales figures. Others have pointed out that the statistics used in calculating this value could be based on faulty assumptions.

Regardless, this statistic reinforces the power of social media as a tool for big brands to reach the public.

Making a new website and need something to help it stand out from the crowd? Or filming a Youtube video and want some interesting sounds to emphasize your actions? Or just tired of the same old ringtones?

The FreeSound Project is an enormous database of sounds, most of which are licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license, allowing you to mash-up, sample and transform the sounds as much as you like, as long as you provide credit to the source.

You can also add sound files to their database, which will be credited to you every time the sound is used.  Each sound has a description, as well as a link to the type of license. The sounds can be commented on and rated, providing you with instant reviews while you are searching for that perfect soundbite.
The FreeSound Project currently has over 86,000 sound files and more are added every day.  When searching for “frog” it comes up with over 300 hits.

You can search with the geotagged option, which specifies where the file was recorded, as well as taking a look at the remix tree, which shows samples which have been remixed from other samples (which may have been remixed from other samples) and how they all connect to the original sound.  Or you could just use the random sample, a surprisingly addictive option that throws up sound files at random.
However you use it, The FreeSound Project has the potential to be a powerful asset in creativity.

Has it been a perfect process?  No, as many who are still stranded can attest to.
Immediately after flights were canceled it was difficult for people to find information available on the internet concerning flights, rental cars, trains or other options, whether because the sites overloaded, or because the companies hadn’t gotten around to updating.

This reflected less on the capacity of the internet to respond to the disaster, and more on the present abilities of the agencies involved. Thankfully social media has come to the rescue, as those affected by the volcanic ash have been able to access a large amount of public information to help make the crises easier to deal with.

Tourism operators of all stripes should take note of how powerful these sources of information and communication can be – as should anyone who happens to get stuck in a similar situation.  And governments and disaster relief organisations should also take note, because the next big disaster might not be as benign as a sky full of smoke.