It’s very cool to see things as they happen. Google has at Googleplex a big display that shows live queries from all the world, but they didn’t make it available online for privacy reasons. But there’s an alternative: Dogpile, a small metasearch engine, shows unedited real-time Web searches.

To see all the recent Flickr photos that also have geographical information, there’s Flickrvision. All the photos are placed on a Google map and they change very quickly. It’s an addictive way to learn about diversity, people and to destroy the artificial borders between countries.If you have a site and want a real-time view of your visitors, Clicky has a “spy” feature “that shows you actions on your web site as they are happening, delayed no more than five seconds” (here’s a demo). You’ll spend hours finding who visits your site and why.

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Today is Blue Beanie day! If you haven’t got involved do it now!
It’s the day thousands of Standardistas (people who support web standards) will wear a Blue Beanie to show their support for accessible, semantic web content.
It’s easy to show your support for web design done right. Put on a Blue Beanie and snap a photo. Then on November 26, switch your profile picture in Facebook or other social Network and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group at Flickr (here).

Event details on Facebook

Photos on Flickr

Below is a screenshot of Twitter this morning, showing colleagues supporting Blue Beanie day, including King Zeldman himself.

Here’s a good widget to see how really good your Broadband server is, does it live up to the promises of the advertised speeds of 8MB or 12MB for example?

Give your broadband a test using Speedtest.net’s Widget and find out what your broadband upload and download rates actually are.

Speedtest.net measures the performance of your broadband connection. At the end of each test, you are presented with the download (the speed of data from the server to your computer) and upload (the speed of sending data from your computer to the server) bandwidth speeds. The tests are performed completely within your web browser over HTTP (just like normal web browsing). If you experience any problems using Speedtest.net, please visit the Questions & Answers section for further help.

You will see widgets like this one above becoming more common on web sites in 2008. It’s a great way to get users to distribute the content of a third party.

Do you need an Award Winning Freelance Web Developer click for more details

Following a successful evening spent with fellow geeks at the ‘Geek (insert drink name here) Thing‘ at Brunswick Square, I wanted to provide a follow up with tasting notes and further links to encourage you to research Cider in your own time, and who knows it may even become one of your favourite hobbies too!

The actual event started off by eating apples..

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Erin Caton has designed a pocket cheat sheet / pocket guide for commonly used microformats.

http://microformats.org/wiki/pocketcheatsheet

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The following excerpt is from Day 1 of my diary. I led a volunteer wildlife conservation project in partnership with BTCV and RCDP in Nepal over the last month.

I do these projects in different parts of the world once a year, its a fantastic way of meeting people from all walks of life.. Certainly more than just travelling the normal backpacker route:

The volunteers arrive slowly one by one from the Airport to the guest home in the Thamel area of Kathmandu..

Some dive straight into the local food, others enjoy the spirit of South Asia and get lost down all the winding lanes of the capital city. Shops, rickshaws and temples..

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SxSW is of course back for 2008, this time, rather than hearing from colleagues about just how good it was.. I am going!

If you are going you can book your hotel, and book your plane ticket now. Return flights from Gatwick to Texas start at the £300 mark.
Here are the dates:

• SXSW Interactive: Friday March 7 – Tuesday March 11
• SXSW Film: Friday March 7 – Saturday March 15
• SXSW Music: Wednesday March 12 – Sunday March 16

New for 2008: SXSW.mobi

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