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Aardvark: Ask a question and Google will find someone to answer it

Posted: 22 Feb 2010 08:23 AM PST

Google recently bought a company called Aadvark. I was wondering what it was all about and finally found Aadvark listed as a part of Google Labs. It has a simple system. Ask a question and someone will answer the question. Aardvark will fit someone who will answer the question. It also means with Aardvark you can answer some of the questions people are asking.

About Aardvark

Simplicity is very prevalent on Aardvark. The website has been bought by Google and hence it allows you to find your Gmail contacts and also Facebook contacts on Aardvark.
Ask a question which is specific and Aardvark displays it around to people with relative expertise. The answers are then displayed to you.
You can also answer questions on specific questions and you can funnel down the questions by selecting what your expertise might be.
Once you have submitted a questions some will usually answer it. If you want more answers you can ask Aardvark to look for more. It also allows you to flag inappropriate answers which is good as it would control spamming and internet rants which can often ruin a serious expectation of your question being answered.

Go ahead and try out Aardvark; ask a few questions and see if it gives you satisfactory answers. Or even better browse questions and answer a few. Do let me know your opinion by dropping in a comment.

http://vark.com/

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Bing Maps takes Google street view concept and makes it better [Video]

Posted: 22 Feb 2010 03:21 AM PST

Some of you who love Google Maps might know about its street view feature. Microsoft has actually trumped Google with its new Bing Maps features. Not only does it have its own cameras taking photographs of selected places but has also introduced crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing means the videos or photos you take and post of Flickr can be used against Bing photographs in a seamless way.

First time I used Bing Maps I felt it was a clone of Google Maps but I was impressed with some of their seamless products. The current new products are mainly creating a 3 D environment of whole cities. This is available with Google Earth but for Google Earth you need to install a software which uses a graphics card.

Bing Maps creating a 3D environment is similar to Google Maps and hence you need only a browser rather than a software installed for that 3 D rendering.

There are many features like historical timeline and before and after views which show streets on how they have changed over time. I think these features are a lot more important as an archive than just a mere travel tool.

Here is a video of TED talk which introduced the new features of Bing Maps.

I think Bing Maps and their new features if they get them to work right will be truly difficult to compete against but I am sure Google Maps will have something up its sleeve.

So what do you think about Bing Maps? Will it bury Google Maps and its relevance?

This Post Bing Maps takes Google street view concept and makes it better [Video] is Published on Devils Workshop .