With the search engine market getting crowded with new search engines making an appearance everyday, Spock is a search engine which aims to be different. Spock is different because it does not index webpages. It indexes people on the web.

Just like you search Google using keywords, you enter a person’s name in Spock. And Spock displays all people with that name it has indexed with the most relevant name at the top. For example if you search for Sachin Tendulkar, it displays all people with “Sachin Tendulkar” as the name. The most relevant result at the top is that of the Sachin Tendulkar the batsman himself.

Where Spock really excels is after search, when you click on a result. When you click “Sachin Tendulkar” you get to see his photos, about him, where he was mentioned in news etc…

People can add tags, add photos and vote on existing metadata also. You can also sign up with Spock and add your own data also.

So where does Spock get this people data from ? Simple. It indexes social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook and also Wikipedia to get people data.

Looks interesting…..

Spock.com - A Great Place for Search

No more does advertising on a blog mean using Google Adsense only. Clickbooth CPA Network is yet another CPA ad network which helps you earn money from your blog or website and in the process keeps a cut of the money the advertiser pays to advertise.

Signing Up

As with any new ad network, you need to first sign up with Clickbooth as a publisher. It’s a very simple process where you need to enter the usual stuff like name, address, etc. One thing I liked about the registration system at Clickbooth is the verification tool. You select your country & enter your phone number, and the system calls you and gives you a verification PIN code which you must then enter on the site. No e-mail verification needed !

The next step was to enter the websites. There is something weird here. You can enter as many sites as you want but choose only a single category for all the sites. That is a bit of a problem because not all of your sites will belong to the same category.

Sign-up is over. Next comes the waiting. After the sign up process, I got a message that one of their reviewers will get back to me. Only after that I will be able to view the options available.

Till then….

Remember Measure Map ? The Google Analytics for blogs. Measure Map gave you some interesting stats about your blog based on your posts and your visitors.

Google had acquired the service back in February 2006. And like most other third party services acquired by Google, it faded into oblivion. But Techcrunch is now reporting that Measure Map is staging a comeback.

Google Analytics will now add support for blog tracking using Measure Map. The same friendly interface but now on the reliable Google Analytics engine. The earliest users of the Measure Map service have received an e-mail to try out the new service.

Sigh. Why do all new Google services have to be invitation only.

Waiting for my chance to see the new Measure Map !

Are you are one the many Windows XP users out there who have been waiting for the official SP3 release from Microsoft. If yes then your waiting is over !

Microsoft has officially released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

You can download the stand-alone Service Pack 3 update from Microsoft’s servers now.

If you want to use Windows Update, then you have to wait because Microsoft has yet again delayed the availability of Windows XP SP3 on Windows Update. The problem is apparently due to some conflict between Microsoft Dynamics and Windows.

Download: Stand-alone installer for Windows XP SP3 English, 32 Bit

With just one day to go for the release of the new edition of Ubuntu Linux (Hardy Heron 8.04), ShipIt is now accepting requests for shipping free CD’s of Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

One notable change is that, now you can order only a single CD of either the Desktop edition or Server edition. If you want more than that you will have to place a special order which may be approved or rejected. Its good to see the Ubuntu team cut down on sending unnecessary CD’s.

Pre-order you free Ubuntu Hardy Heron CD now