FirstCaribbean International Bank – Home
FirstCaribbean International Bank-Jamaica Lagging!
What’s taking FirstCaribbean Int. Bank so long to offer card users access to their credit card transactions online?Customers are forced to call their call center, waste time waiting for someone to answer, then waste time going through the routine of answering some ridiculous questions under the guise of verifying our identities before getting assistance. All the other banks have been offering their customers these services for some time now and I suspect that if FirstCaribbean cannot keep up with the changes in technology, they may find that customers will migrate to the other networks. The management needs to remember that employers look negatively on workers who use their networks for personal purposes. Things like asking for time off to go to the bank, pay bills or making a phone call for information on a credit card should be thing of the pass.
Don’t spend your 100 bucks on Google’s ‘Custom Search Business Edition’ just yet
It might be a great idea that Google (on July 17, 2007) has launched a ‘Custom Search Business Edition’ that includes small business owners. The cost of indexing is based on the volume of web pages to be indexed and runs as follows:
‘$100 per year for websites of less than 5,000 web pages, and $500 per year for websites between 5,000 and 50,000 web pages’
But before you take out a subscription for Google’s website indexing tool, please take a few moments and try the ‘first to the market’ free tool offered by the search engine Exalead.
You will not be able to add your own logo, customize the colours or remove the ‘ads’ from the search results (this is similar to Google’s free version), but with Exalead you get a result page that shows both text and ‘thumbnail’ size page preview that when ‘clicked’ maximises to almost a full page for easy viewing and allows you to view and scroll through the previews before hitting the ‘go’ button for the page that you want to visit. Additionally, you can refine the search by searching ‘within the results’. You will have to register with Exalead before you have access to the codes but installation is easy and you can start searching your website as soon as you publish the codes.
All of this is FREE. Let me know what you think.
Flock – is this browser ready for the big times?
Flock is a
fairly new entrant in the ‘browser wars’. As such the first question that any
critic would ask is what new value can Flock introduce that would persuade
someone to switch browsers? The discussion that follows will highlight some of
the points that the creators of Flock would probably raise if they were to
answer the above question.
In order to
organize my thoughts my review of the browser was categorized under six
headings. The issue of privacy & security will not be discussed as this is
a major issue which needs further research before drawing any conclusions.
One of the
major objectives of Flock is to make it easy for people to ‘easily access and
share videos, photos and comments across social communities, media providers,
and popular websites’. Flock has a lot to offer even t if you are a social
network sceptic.
Flock is
developed based on Firefox. It is not surprising therefore that the Firefox
add-ons and extensions work with Flock.
The six headings
or categories are as follows;
- Basic features
- Extensions/Add-ons
- Customizing
- Flickr and Photobucket
- Blog
- Interface/user experience
BASIC
FEATURES
Tab
browsing is available just like IE7. You need a Firefox Add-on to display the
tabs as thumbnails or ‘showcase’ the tabs as it is know in Firefox. All Favorites
can be imported from Internet Explorer. Flock also supports two Favorites
sharing services; del.icio.us and Shadows. You will need an account before
you can update your favorites online using Flock’s Star feature. Once you have
an account, you can set it up in Flock using the Account and Services menu
under ‘Tools’.
EXTENSIONS/ADD-ONS
Add-ons and
Extensions are available to improve the functionality of the browser. These are
available both from the Flock website and from the Firefox website. Some
Firefox add-ons may have to be converted by Flock’d before being installed in
Flock. My personal favourites are listed as follows:
- Gmail Manager – for Gmail accounts management and mail notifications.
- Flock’d
– used to convert a Firefox extension into a Flock extension through the
Flock’d website. This extension ensures that the full arsenal of Firefox
extensions is available to Flock users. - BetterSearch – This extension enhances the search results of Google, A9, MSN,
Yahoo, Answers.com and many other search engines. It does this by adding
thumbnail previews, Amazon product info and special links to the results. - Answers
– Alt+Click on any word or term for quick information. This is a very
useful extension. - Get Company Info – You can get company information on any webpage that has the
company name or ticker. All you have to do is right-click the name or
ticker and select company info from the context menu. This ideal for
researchers, financial analysis or any who needs additional information
about listed companies.
– This add-on allows the user to split the browser window vertically,
horizontally as you like.- Cooliris Previews – A Simple and powerful way of navigating through search results or
links on WebPages. It allows the user to see preview of the Webpage
without leaving the current page. - Firefox Showcase – This extension allows the user to easily locate any tab that has
been opened. This feature is also available in IE7. - Foxy Tunes – This extension allows the user to control any media player from the
browser window. It is useful as the control buttons are added to the
browser and you do not have to navigate away from a Webpage to start,
stop, fast forward etc. the music player.
CUSTOMIZING
–SERVICES AND EXTENSIONS
Customizing
the toolbar is very easy as it has ‘drag and drop’ functionality. Adding new
Toolbars are extremely easy. Further customizing can be done under the Account
and Services found under ‘Tools’.
FLICKR AND
PHOTOBUCKET
You can
setup and upload photos into Flickr straight from the browser’s Photo Toolbar.
It also works with Photobucket and similar services.
BLOG
After
setting up your Blog in the browser, you can write and publish a Blog straight
from the browser window. Also, you can Blog any story by simply ‘right
clicking’ on the story and select ‘Blog this’ from the context menu.
INTERFACE/USER
EXPERIENCE
The fastest
way to navigate the Internet with Flock is to use the Favorites Manager. The interface is reminiscent of Internet
Explorer 7 as is has a sidebar on the left of the page showing the Collections
or Folders with the links exploding to the right of the selected Collection. A
really ‘cool’ feature of the Favorites Manager is that you can search for the
link using the search bar at the bottom of the screen. You can search for the
full name, a part of the name or tags to find the link. The results of the
search are displayed as you type. Now because it is the Favorites Manager, you
can double the link to go to the Webpage or you can right the link to execute
commands such as open the page, open new window or open a new tab. This menu
also allows you to copy or delete the link. The Favorites can also be accessed
from a ‘drop down’ menu at the top of the screen.
This is a
general introduction to what I think is an exciting browser. You should give it
a try.
Blogging Amazon
Amazon.com Entertainment: Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher
Amazon’s Fishbowl with Bill Maher is a successful convergence of four
different icons to market several products. It shows that businesses in the
21st century realize that in order to survive they have to be creative,
they have to form strategic partnerships (which need not be permanent)
and they need to have an Internet presence as the Internet has become
the fastest growing market place.
At first glance you may say that there is no way that
Bill Maher, one of the best comedian, Amazon, originally known for selling
books but now offers much more, UPS a huge international logistics company and
Cingular a massive telecom company could all come together in a major project
to market their products. Together they have produced 12 episodes of Amazon’s
Fishbowl with Bill Maher. This is a series of interviews with well know stars
from literature, film, TV and music. It also features live performances from a
number of bands and of course advertisement from UPS and Cingular.
I thoroughly enjoyed the programs and now that the project is over, four
things still stand out in my mind, Bill Maher, UPS, Amazon and Cingular. I am a
‘customer’ of all except Cingular that has not yet extended it reach to my part
of the world.
I think that this was a good effort. You should watch all 12 episodes while
they are still available from the Website and let me know what you think.
What’s in a name -part2
Cisco to sue Apple over iPhone trademark – Financial Times – MSNBC.com
In an earlier Blog post, I had suggested that if Apple (now Apple Inc.)
decided to use the name iTV for its set top box that streams video and other
content through a person’s TV, they would have a legal battle about the name
when the product comes to Europe. As it turns
out there will be no battle for the name as Apple has chosen to use the name
‘Apple TV’ for its set top box. The management at iTV, the UK’s biggest
television network, can breathe a sigh of relief at least for now.
Not so for Cisco Systems however as Steve Jobs announced
the coming of the iPhone at Macworld this week. This follows an apparent
breakdown in negotiations between both companies about the use of the name. The
‘gloves’ are out and the battle has begun to see who will ultimately be entitled
to use the name. You can follow up the story at http://www.macworld.com and
http://www.cisco.com.
What do you think?
Is Google loosing market share?
Is Google loosing market share?
People who are serious about searching for information on the Internet know that in order to get the best results, you must use more than one search engine. There is a ‘new kid on the block’ known as Exalead (pronounced eg’ zaeli: d). and in my opinion it is a worthy competitor to Google as far as the basic and advanced web search is concerned. You can find this search engine at www.exalead.com.
Some believe that Exalead is Europe’s answer to America’s Google. The company was founded in Paris in 2000 by search engine pioneers Francois Bourdoncle and Patrice Bertin. They currently hold the positions of CEO and Chief Technology Officer respectively. The company have offices in the U.S. and Italy. Exalead was a part of a Euro project called ‘Quaero’. It is alleged that over £250M Euros have been pumped into this project to facilitate research and Exalead is said to have been one of the beneficiaries. The company have a wide range of products but our discussion will be limited only to the Web search engine.
When compared to Google, there is little that is new, however there are a number of things that Exalead does better and these are the things that I would like to highlight.
Filters
I normally judge a search engine by how easily I can use the commands to filter out unwanted data so that I can spend my time working only with what is relevant. Google was never known for having a good interface. The creators of Exalead have come up with a better, more user friendly interface. After running a basic search a little window pops up in the top right hand section of the screen that gives additional options to refine the search. Simply clicking on any of the options will refine the search using that parameter. The screen refreshes with the new results and the parameter chosen moves to the top of the ‘Refine Your Search’ window with the option to remove the refinement to the right. There are more refinement options and these can be accessed by clicking ‘more choices’ at the bottom of the ‘Refine you search’ window. The additional choices reveal more file types, geographical locations and a ‘Search within results’ box. Further refinement is possible by selecting ‘only recent results’ and you can also alternate between any of the three different views namely show text only, show images and text or show images text and extra information simply by clicking on the icons.
Preview Screen
Exalead is not the first search engine to use a preview screen; however the feature is a useful one. When you do a search the default view for the results includes a small thumbnail image of the web page for each result. If you click on the thumbnail image you are taken to a preview of the web page. Here you have the option to go ‘full page’ or return to the results. On this preview screen all occurrences of the search words are highlighted so that you can find them easily. Sometimes it is not necessary to go to the preview screen as by looking at the thumbnail image you can tell whether it is the right page or not. Google currently does not have a preview screen.
Shortcuts
This feature has nothing to do with a web search engine but it is convenient. You can save shortcuts of at least 18 web pages to Exalead. To do this you have to create an account and be logged in. These shortcuts can be retrieved from any computer connected to the Internet. However, before using this feature, you should read their privacy policies just to make sure that you agree with them. Once cookies are enabled you are leaving yourself open to some form of tracking.
Email
This feature has nothing to do with a web search engine, but again it is useful. You can email the search results to someone else or to yourself.
Add Exalead to Your Website
You can add Exalead to your Website. This is a very simple process and it works exceptionally well.
Exalead is currently indexing approximately 8 billion pages, a milestone that Google has reached sometime ago. Google also offers translation services, scholarly searches, alternatives to Microsoft Office and a host of other services so it will not be easy to unseat them from their dominant position in the market. However, I am convinced that Exalead is a worthy competitor to Google when it comes to the basic and advance searches. For the present time I have made Exalead my Home Page but Google is still in my favourites as Google is much more than a ‘Search Engine’. On another occasion we can discuss the advance search features but I think we have raised enough points for you to give Exalead a try. What do you think?
It is expected that Google will loose some market share especially in Europe, but they will continue to lead for a long time to come.
